Source: Jornal do Brasil, 13/04/2009

Cigarettes became the main smuggled product from Paraguay to Brazil, as confirmed by a Federal Police survey last week. Criminal action at the border deserves extra attention from national authorities, as it affects not only the legally established industry but also the health of Brazilians. According to the Brazilian Association to Combat Piracy, there are already 50 cigarette factories in Paraguay, producing 47 billion units per year. If the harms of the legalized product were not enough, it is known that pirated tobacco - sold on a large scale and without repression on the streets of large cities - is manufactured without any quality control, under minimum conditions of hygiene and technical rigor. The issue, therefore, transcends the criminal and economic spheres and ends up becoming a public health problem.

Organized to assist the police in Operation Jupiter, launched last year by Interpol in partnership with neighboring countries in Mercosur, the study by the Federal Police's Department for the Suppression of Crimes against Crime shows that between July and September last year the equivalent of Paraguay arrived R $ 9 million in cigarettes. The product ended up in clandestine stores in Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Tocantins, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Brasília. The federal capital, in fact, has become one of the major centers of consumption, according to the survey.

In the almost XNUMX kilometers of border between Brazil and Paraguay, smugglers act night and day, crossing the goods in small boats and using open trails on the shores of Lake Itaipu. What does not arrive by land in the Foz do Iguaçu region, comes by the lake in the region close to Mato Grosso do Sul, docking in clandestine ports. From there, he follows dirt roads (often in carts or even on donkey back) to the nearest store, which buys and resells the product without paying taxes. According to police chief José Mauro Nunes, of the PF's Crime Crimes Division in Brasília, the transportation and sale of Paraguayan tobacco is handled by major criminal organizations, with branches in various states in the country.

Although there is still no study on the impact of the government's decision to raise the rate on cigarettes - a measure adopted in the midst of the recent recovery packages, in order to compensate the tax exemption for vehicles in general and construction material - both the Federal Police as for the Federal Revenue, they have no doubt that contraband will suffer a strong increase. For this reason, the two agencies are already exchanging information to tighten the siege at the crossing points and dismantle the gangs that operate in the clandestine tobacco market. A data revealed by the IRS points out the fact that in February more than 4 million packs of cigarettes were seized along the border with Paraguay. Of infinitely inferior quality to the legal Brazilian product, the cigarette reaches the consumer at half the value.

If the tax authorities and the police try to do their part, it is now up to the conscious citizen to do their part. First, avoid pirated products. Then, the smartest decision regarding smoking: quit smoking.