Source: Portal Correio - João Pessoa / PB - 09/07/2010

The Federal Public Ministry in Campina Grande (PB) denounced the driver Laércio Pereira Guedes and the mechanic Emerson Patrício Fernandes for the smuggling of 22 million cigarettes. The cargo was seized on April 10 of this year, by the Federal Highway Police, at the entrance to the municipality of Teixeira (PB). The complaint of the Public Ministry was received on Monday, (5), by the judge of the 6th Federal Court of Justice in Paraíba.

As it turned out, the cargo of cigarettes came from Paraguay and was being transported without invoice in a Volvo-type truck, with a license plate from Fortaleza (CE), driven, at the time of the act, by Laércio Guedes. The 1.142 cigarette boxes were hidden among boxes of vegetables, and the driver confessed that he was transporting contraband cigarettes in exchange for R $ 15,00 per box transported. Laércio Guedes also confessed that he had already been arrested in Mato Grosso for marijuana trafficking. In the criminal history of the defendant, it is stated that, in addition to involvement in drug trafficking, he also responds to the process of armed robbery for carrying cigarettes.

According to information from the Federal Revenue Service in João Pessoa (PB), the seized cigarette shipment consists of 251 Bahama cigarette cases and 891 US Blend cigarette cases, both manufactured in Paraguay, totaling R $ 571 thousand. It was also found that the packs of the wallets do not have the control stamps of the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI) required by the tax legislation, nor the words and images of warning to the consumer, referring to the harm resulting from the use of smoke products, required by the health legislation.

For the Federal Public Ministry, the large amount of material seized reveals the high criminal potential of Laércio Guedes, being an excellent smuggler, with networks of interstate and international contacts, with evidence to conclude that he is part of the international cigarette smuggling organization. . There is also sufficient evidence of the criminal participation of mechanic Emerson Patrício Fernandes. “When it comes to transporting cargo by truck, it is usual to rotate people behind the wheel, even to protect the load during a driver's sleep, notably in cases of complex and large cigarette smuggling scheme between Paraguay and Brazil” , highlights the body in the complaint.

The Public Prosecutor's Office asked for the defendants to be sentenced to the penalties of article 334, §1, “b”, of the Penal Code, combined with article 3 of Decree-Law no. 399/68. The reported driver is in custody.

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