Source: Last Second - SP - 04/11/2009

Judge Sylvia Marlene de Castro Figueiredo, of the 3rd Federal Court of Sorocaba (SP), accepted a complaint from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and opened criminal proceedings against one of the largest cigarette smuggling gangs in the State of São Paulo. The action released today by the MPF refers to the seizure of 550 packets of banned import cigarettes, on September 14.

The group's leader, Edinaldo Sebastião da Silva, known as “Roberto”, had requested preventive detention, but the judge did not grant it. He will face the fifth case for the same crime.

The merchandise was found in a farm in Edinaldo, near the Jockey Club of Sorocaba. The packs of cigarettes came from Paraguay and it was still inside a box truck. It was evaluated by the Federal Revenue at R $ 580 thousand. Edinaldo's wife, Andréia Ribeiro da Silva, and seven people who escorted and unloaded the cargo were arrested and reported for the crime.

Federal prosecutor Elaine Cristina de Sá Proença asked for preventive arrest of Edinaldo, because, even though he had already been convicted in two cases, he again smuggled. In one of the actions, he received a sentence of four years and six months in prison for crimes of conspiracy and cigarette smuggling, but he appealed. The lawsuit is in the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region. In another case, he was sentenced to two years and four months in prison for smuggling.