Wine smuggling on Brazil-Argentina border moves US$396 million in 2021

TV Globo’s Fantástico went to the border between Brazil and Argentina to investigate a criminal scheme: wine smuggling, an undercover market that moved R$2 billion (US$396 million) in 2021 alone.

In the last three years, the number of seizures of smuggled bottles increased seven times.

Fantástico followed an operation of the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service in the region of Tiradentes do Sul, in the north of Rio Grande do Sul state.

On the other bank of the Uruguay river is the city of El Soberbio, where the reporter Giovani Grizotti talked to a wine smuggler.

On the ferry that crosses the Uruguay River towards Brazil, cases of wine were hidden in a car. Then, the vehicle passed by an abandoned Revenue Service checkpoint.

Cases like this have been increasing at an impressive rate. In 2019, 87,000 bottles of wine irregularly introduced into Brazil were seized. In 2021, there were almost 600,000.

With information from Fantástico

More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error