Author: Andréa Moura

Source: Jornal da Cidade - Sergipe - SE - CITIES - 31/07/2009

Officials at the State Secretariat of Finance seized, last Wednesday night, a Mercedes-Benz truck, with KOL-8925 plates, from Rio de Janeiro, loaded with cigarettes.

The estimate of Sefaz servers is that approximately 350 thousand packs were being transported, a cargo with an approximate value of R $ 700 thousand. The seizure took place at the fiscal post in the municipality of Cristinápolis, 115 kilometers from the capital. All the material and the truck driver were brought to the Federal Police headquarters in the state late yesterday afternoon, where the driver was interrogated. “He was caught in the act and fined for smuggling,” said Sidney Ates, the regional delegate for Combating Organized Crime in the State, commenting that the interrogation was being carried out by another fellow federal delegate.

Information contained in the invoice that was on the truck showed that the cargo originated in São Paulo and that it was going to Rio Grande do Norte, more specifically to the municipalities of Natal, Paramirim and Mossoró. "But we don't know if it was, this is still being investigated, because the note contained a load of chests, handcarts, buckets and other objects of the type, which was not true", commented Sidney Ates, who preferred not to disclose the name of the driver, saying only that he is a native of Rio de Janeiro and would own the truck.

This morning the vehicle will be taken to the headquarters of the Federal Revenue of Brazil, in the Industrial District of Aracaju, where the load will be counted. According to the Sefaz Communication Advisory, the seizure was the result of a routine work carried out by the Cigarette Inspection and Transport groups, which is to assess the cargo entering the state.

“As soon as the truck was approached, the inspectors asked for the product invoice and realized that what was being itemized in the note did not match what was actually in the truck. It was then that they announced the retention of cargo and vehicle ”, explained the journalist and Communication Advisor at Sefaz, Helber Andrade.

As the main suspicion was that the material was coming from Foz do Iguaçu, suspicion that the driver had not confirmed to the inspectors of the State Secretariat of Finance, two possibilities were raised: that of being contraband or counterfeit material. Because of this, the IRS was called, and this morning, the Federal Police went to Cristinápolis to pick up the vehicle.