Patrols of Customs and Carabineros intercepted this Thursday (25.06.2020/XNUMX/XNUMX) more than 706 thousand packets of contraband cigarettes in the Antofagasta Region, in northern Chile.
The actions, framed within the Joint work programme to strengthen the fight against organised crime, allowed to avoid a tax fraud of US$ 2 million 163 thousand dollars.
El Chief of the Second Zone of Carabineros of Antofagasta, General Rodrigo Medina Silva, highlighted that the multi-million dollar seizure is a demonstration of the maintenance of police capacity to combat delinquency and organized crime.
“Despite the fact that we are in a pandemic, we have not stopped working to protect citizens and, along with prevention efforts, we continue on the investigative path and in police work to dismantle criminal organizations. To this end, the work with Customs, the PDI and government authorities is valuable, which has allowed us to successfully intervene both in Antofagasta and in the rest of the Northern Macro Zone.”
Similar concepts were delivered by the Regional Director of Customs, Francisco Romero, who along with valuing the joint work highlighted that this type of smuggling in addition to the fiscal damage "It puts the health of the community at risk and generates all kinds of negative externalities. We as Customs exercise oversight and are also responsible for criminal prosecution, and at a regional level we have achieved numerous convictions that end in the destruction of cigarettes and the confiscation of trucks and other goods."
A truck with a passanger loaded the contraband in the desert. Photo: Chilean Customs
El Regional Advisor to the Ministry of Finance in AntofagastaPablo Castillo Salazar emphasized collaborative work and the maintenance of actions in favor of the security of the logistics chain and legal trade.
“This smuggling and all smuggling seek to evade taxes and we must remember that all social aid from the State in favor of the community, and even more so in this period of pandemic, is achieved thanks to the collection and payment of taxes. For this reason, we value this operation and the control actions will remain unchanged.”
In the first procedure, it was registered in the La Negra sector when officers from the OS-7 of Carabineros and Customs intercepted a truck with a passenger that left empty from Iquique and loaded the smuggling in the desert. Upon inspection, they found 304.960 packs of cigarettes that had entered the country through unauthorized crossings and were distributed into 249.970 packs of the Paraguayan brand Fox and 54.990 packs of the Korean brand Ten Twennty.
Carabineros officers later intercepted another truck with similar characteristics near Baquedano, which was carrying a total of 402.000 packets of cigarettes of the Vip, Carnival and Blu brands on its trailer.
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