Chilean authorities reported this Tuesday (17.10.2023/XNUMX/XNUMX) the detection of a container specially modified to hide a millionaire cigarette smuggling, whose tax evasion is calculated at 113.086.573 pesos.
The National Customs Service specified that the shipment was hidden in a kind of double bottom of a container that was returning to Chile from the city of Oruro. The seizure took place on Sunday in the Colchane border complexTamarugal Province, corresponding to the Tarapacá Region, on the border with Bolivia.
The operation was launched when "the officers on duty profiled a foreign truck, specifically a container that was supposedly empty. By measuring the dimensions and densities, it was found that the structure of the container was modified and it was intervened," said the Regional Director of the Iquique Customs, Cristian Molina Silva.
With the help of tools, customs officers dismantled a fake platform and found 110 cajas that contained inside 55 thousand packs of cigarettes, Divided into 30 thousand of the Korean brand Carnival and 25 thousand of the Hill brands, Customs detailed.
According to the information, the truck driver, an identified Bolivian citizen, was charged with the crime of smuggling his own goods and the legal team of the Iquique Customs immediately filed a criminal action before the Public Prosecutor's Office, for which the prosecutor on duty ordered his arrest to subject him to a control in the Pozo Almonte Court. The arrest was extended until an identification was generated for the accused, who indicated that he would receive a US$ 300 reward for carrying the contraband.
The truck, its trailer and the container were also seized by Customs because they served as a platform for the crime. Meanwhile, the cigarettes will be subjected to a process of destruction because they are prohibited from importing.
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