On Tuesday, October 18, a commission of deputies and senators warned about smuggling cigarettes from Paraguay to neighboring Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil, denouncing that the country has become an “attractive place for money laundering crimes” and a “logistic corridor” for criminal organizations.
In a press conference, Senator Jorge Querey, president of the Bicameral Commission of Investigation of punishable acts of money laundering and other related crimes, presented the final preliminary report of the work developed since last June, which he will deliver to the president of Congress, Óscar Salomón.
“In this document, there are no personal opinions, there are no media headlines”, clarified Querey, who accompanied his presentation with a 14-page document that was distributed to the press.
The report indicates that “Paraguay, due to the low level of institutionalism and control, became an attractive place for money laundering crimes, both for the use of the financial system or to hide the true origin of the funds”.
It also details that the country “is a transit market for drug trafficking,” warning that its river transport system, with a low level of control and surveillance, “facilitates the free transit of cocaine that leaves through the waterway (a navigation corridor along the Paraguay, Parana and its tributaries) and then goes mainly to Europe and Africa”.
Concerning contraband smuggling, Querey stated that they analyzed the “illegal trafficking of cigarettes and its link to former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes” and the tobacco companies he owned.
Cartes (2013-2018) was included last July by the US State Department in its corrupt list, which banned his entry to that country.
The document also points out that, according to the Financial Intelligence Report of the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money or Asset Laundering (Seprelad), “it can be deduced that Tabacalera del Este S.A. sold to the local market 96.24% and only exported 3.76% of its production to the international market between 2013 and 2021″.
“The amount of sales in the local market far exceeds the consumption capacity in the country. This excessive production of cigarettes ends up going out as contraband”, the text asserts.
The contraband, the report illustrates, passes through the Paraná River into Brazil and Argentina, along the border with the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sur, or through the Chaco region into Bolivia.
On the other hand, Querey cited a 2018 investigation conducted by members of the Executive Committee of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the United Nations Security Council.
The legislator explained that the investigation refers to the “total control” of illicit cigarette and drug trafficking in Brazil by organizations such as the First Capital Command (PCC), the Red Command (Comando Vermelho), and Hezbollah.
Querey also indicated that these documents refer to who to turn to in Paraguay for logistics.
“In these reports, it is stated that 60% of the low-caliber weapons smuggled into Brazil are smuggled through Paraguay, and 80% or more of the large-caliber weapons are smuggled through Paraguay.
“Therefore, we are talking about a logistical corridor, which is the logistical corridor of international crime,” he said.
In this sense, the head of the commission considered that the Attorney General’s Office and the Judiciary should investigate and declare the guilty parties guilty and asked that the Navy, the National Customs Directorate, and the National Police be investigated.
With information from EFE