Brazil's borders are easy passages for criminals from ten countries
Source: Jornal Nacional, Globo, 30/05/2011
23 / 05 / 2011 Day Issue
30/05/2011 21h17
Series shows the vulnerability of Brazilian borders, which would explain the
large amount of arms and smuggled drugs arriving in the country. There were 45
travel days and the result is worrying.
to the video on the JN website (external link)
This Monday (30), begins with the first report in a series on
Brazilian borders. Nine years ago, in a job similar to this,
we show how these areas were vulnerable to smuggling, weapons and
drugs. And how this fragility was directly linked to violence and
public insecurity.
The series that you will be following this week is the result of a trip of 45
days of reporters César Tralli, Robinson Cerântula and Fernando Ferro. What
they found is even more worrying.
Two zero-kilometer cars and an almost perfect disguise: inside the
bodies. There are cameras, lenses, batteries, equipment
electronics. It is a zero car adapted to transport swag.
The team also caught R $ 1 million in Paraguayan cigarettes, smuggled from
cart. And even wood stuffed with 900 kilos of Bolivian cocaine.
Seizures all made on roads, well after smugglers and
traffickers had already passed the cargo across Brazilian borders.
“The structure they have is very large, so they have scouts,
scouts, communication system. And they use all forms to pass ”,
explained Chief Chang Fan, from the Federal Police of MS.
And it is not at all difficult to enter Brazil. The Federal Revenue Service
separates Paraguay from Mundo Novo, in Mato Grosso do Sul. Whoever arrives from Paraguay,
obligatorily, it should pass inspection. But there is a shortcut, a
easy way to escape the control of the IRS.
At 9:40 am the reporting team began to travel this route for a
dirt road that is 200 meters from the checkpoint. Only took 20
minutes for the shortcut to be covered. Just take a walk around the post.
In just 15 kilometers, there are five clandestine passages, the so-called
kids. To make matters worse, the chief inspector of Mundo Novo said that in March,
lost the reinforcement of eight employees by cutting expenses. “There are no conditions
to inspect all vehicles. So, it's a simple account: more servers,
more effective inspection ”, he highlighted.
From the border with Paraguay to the passage with Bolivia. Corumbá is one of
most dangerous entry points for cocaine and swag.
The Brazilian Federal Revenue Service is right on the border, but it is very easy
leave Bolivia and enter Brazil without going through inspection.
The reporting team stopped at a small market in Porto Quijarro, Bolivia,
and bought three kilos of sugar.
Around a corner is the shortcut to Brazil. It is a trail in the bush. AND
believe: area of the Brazilian Army. A very short passage, which did not give
200 meters. Exactly 50 meters from the inspection.
If it were three kilos of cocaine, they would have already entered territory
Brazilian.
It is an agglomeration of sacoleiros and the shortcut leaves everything, day and night. O
Local Revenue inspector says he can't do anything: “No, here I can't
leave, because it is abandonment of the post ”, he said.
There are only 27 checkpoints of the Federal Revenue for almost 17 thousand
kilometers of border that separate 11 Brazilian states from 10 countries.
And from one end to the other where the team went, in 45 days of travel, a
The situation was repeated: empty rooms, with no one. Even a surveillance room, the
building was completely empty. It was the Barra do Quaraí post, which separates the
Rio Grande do Sul of Uruguay.
The security guard only takes care of the facilities. Suddenly, Alfredo Siqueira appears,
tax system in the region ten years ago. “It has always been precarious
inspection ”, he said.
This region of Rio Grande Sul is a smuggling route for Chinese pesticides.
On the other hand, the manager guarantees delivery anywhere in the country. “If you buy
100, 200 kilos, it goes from 30 kilos to 40 kilos, depending on how
is in control. This is no problem ”.
“The danger is environmental crime, the danger to public health. There is none
authorization from Anvisa, or anything, nor less from the Ministry of Agriculture ”,
declared the Federal Revenue inspector Udilberto Lobo.
The price of the open border between Tabatinga and neighboring Letícia, in Colombia,
it is often paid for with one's life. A piece of the Amazon stained by
violence of the cocaine cartels.
Shots, crimes to order. Most murders in
Tabatinga is committed by hired killers, who are rarely arrested for
how easy they are to escape to Colombia.
Their police, at least, are present on the avenue that connects the cities.
On our side, a PM post, deactivated more than ten years ago.
“The crime was right here, in that place. The boy took three shots and died
just in time. The killer ran and ran. He left for Colombia ”, he recalled
one cop.
The gunman at the service of the drug trade was identified and pursued. The cop
was only three meters from the killer, and could not arrest him, because the
Colombian was already stepping in Colombia. “It feels really bad. Have to
enforce the law, and you can't do that. A feeling of helplessness ”,
he said.
The Federal Police reported that inspection in Tabatinga is not always done
at the border, but at the airport and the city's river port. And that does operations
to arrest those who escape inspection on the back roads.
The Army has declared it will step up patrols to prevent the passage of
of people along the trail in Corumbá.
The Federal Revenue Service stated that it manages the scarce resources to meet the
demand that continues to grow in border control.
This Monday, in Porto Velho, security secretaries from the North Region
met with members of the Armed Forces to propose improvements in control
the borders of the region.
