Tag: combating smuggling

Fight against smuggling has improved but needs to be improved, says Cardozo

Elza FiuzaBalance released today (28) by the Ministry of Justice shows that between 2010 and 2015, actions against smuggling and embezzlement arrested, in operations such as Sentinela and Ágata, more than 10,3 people and 711 detailed terms were recorded. In the same period, 10,38 million packages of cigarettes, 748 thousand pharmaceutical products and medicines, 1.477 firearms, at least 168 thousand ammunition and 6,6 vehicles were recovered.

The data show that the number of inquiries launched to investigate the practice of smuggling and embezzlement grew more than four times between 2010 and 2014, from 1.109 to 4.692, respectively. The survey shows that between 2011 and 2015, 69 operations were carried out by the Federal Police to curb these crimes, resulting in the arrest of 597 people.

Despite the expressive growth of actions to combat smuggling and embezzlement in the last decade, the Minister of Justice, José Eduardo Cardozo, acknowledged that Brazil needs to improve security instruments and actions to prevent products from entering the country illegally.

“We have intensified actions through the Border Plan. But we are absolutely clear that it is necessary to improve what we are doing. If we look at the numbers in relation to what has been done, we see that the results are impactful and impressive ”, said Cardozo.

The fight against smuggling also managed to seize more than 442 thousand electronic products, including cameras, cell phones and the like.

The minister recalled that the country has 16 thousand kilometers of land borders and more than 8 thousand kilometers of sea borders. He added that in order to ensure that the entire area is inspected, even more coordination is needed between the security forces and also to establish a greater dialogue with neighboring countries.

In recent months, according to Cardozo, meetings have taken place with the Federal Police (PF) and Rodoviária Federal (PRF), in addition to the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Revenue Service to perfect the Border Plan.

“This is in line with how we can increase enforcement. With the vastness of borders that we have in Brazil, only the problem of smuggling with intelligence work is faced. For that, last year we bought five complete vehicle scans for the PRF and we are going to buy more this year, to even make donations to the border states ”, said the minister.

According to Cardozo, in addition to the devices that make it possible to make an “X-ray” of vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, known as vants, are being purchased to expand the inspection capacity of the security forces operating at the borders.

Source: Agência Brasil (28/05)

Government confirms measures to curb illegal cigarette trade

The Ministry of Health announced on Thursday, May 28, that the government will ratify the international treaty to eliminate the illegal tobacco trade in Brazil. The goal is to try to reduce the smuggling of the product by hardening the feathers and creating a tracking control system.
Ministry data show that the proportion of illicit cigarettes among smokers rose from 15,8% in 2008 to 29,7% in 2013. Recalling that these products have no control by health authorities and represent a risk to the health of Brazilians. The Ministry will launch an advertising campaign warning of the risks of illegal trade.
Annually, billions of reais in taxes are no longer collected due to the illegal entry of products into the country. The National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality estimates that the country suffers a loss of around R $ 100 billion due to smuggling (sector losses + tax evasion), a sufficient resource to build 1,4 million popular houses, 105 thousand km of highways, 77 thousand hospital beds and 19 thousand daycare centers.
Source: Expresso MT (28/05)

The cost of smuggling

The cost of smugglingThe study The Cost of Smuggling, carried out by the Institute of Economic and Social Development of Borders (Idesf), in partnership with the Gaúcha Public Opinion and Statistics Company (Egope), aims to analyze the main impacts of smuggling on Brazilian society, focusing on the 10 most popular products. smuggled from Paraguay to Brazil.

 

Download the study

THE COST OF CONTRABANDO

Datafolha shows what the Brazilian thinks about smuggling

cover researchThe Brazilian knows that smuggling causes enormous damage to the nation, attracts consumers because it does not pay the country's high taxes, markets low quality products, encourages organized crime and benefits from the inefficiency with which it is fought by the government. These were the main conclusions of an unprecedented survey by Datafolha, commissioned by ETCO-Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition with support from the Movement in Defense of the Brazilian Legal Market, released on May 25.

"The survey revealed that Brazilians understand the seriousness of the problem," said Evandro Guimarães, president of ETCO. "It also showed that the population supports a more rigorous fight against smuggling."

The study had wide-ranging repercussions in the media. On the day it was released, for example, it was the subject of reporter e comment from the program Good morning Brazil, TV Globo, and interview on CBN radio in São Paulo.

Datafolha heard 2.401 people over the age of 16 between April 22 and 24, across the country. The study has a margin of error of 2 percentage points to more or less. Check out the main numbers.

 

 What the Brazilian thinks

cause

92% If the legal product were cheaper, the Brazilian would not buy the contraband.

89% The contraband product costs less because it pays no taxes.

effect

77% Smuggling harms the country and the population

80% Harm to domestic trade and industry.

77% Smuggled products are made from the worst quality materials.

 

crime

86% Smuggling encourages organized crime and drug trafficking.

83% It is a crime to sell contraband.

74% It is a crime to buy contraband.

 

answer

48% The federal government is primarily responsible for the entry of contraband into the country.

90% The government is little or not efficient in combating smuggling.

The solution

61% The solution is to strengthen policing at borders and penalties for smugglers.

 

Listen to the interview given to Radio CBN / SP (25/05/2015)

 

Project guides journalists in smuggling coverage

Press OfficesThe magazine Press, the country's main communication vehicle for journalists, is doing important work to improve society's level of information about the ill effects of smuggling. This is the Fronteiras Cruzadas project, which offers free training for journalists interested in covering the subject.

The project is being developed through two workshops (in São Paulo, on May 18, and in Brasília, on May 25) with the award-winning journalist Mauri König, who is a special reporter for Gazeta do Povo, from Curitiba, and has been following the problem for more than two decades. The initiative also includes a website created to help professionals find information about smuggling and sources of interviews, in addition to publishing their reports about the practice. The project has the support of ETCO-Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition.

The first workshop, held at the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing de São Paulo, attracted dozens of journalists from different media. Invited to speak at the opening of the event, ETCO President Evandro Guimarães drew attention to the role of the press in this matter. "I think that the media does not give due importance to the problem," he said. "That is why we think it is so important to support an event like this."

The ETCO president presented journalists with an overview of the problem of smuggling and other related illegalities, such as product counterfeiting, tax evasion and piracy. "These problems are often treated leniently, as if they were minor evils," stated Guimarães. "But the truth is that they support organized crime."

Profit higher than drugs

The opening also featured a lecture by the president of the National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality (FNCP), Edson Luiz Vismona, who sought to sensitize journalists to the damage that illegal practices cause to Brazil. "Only the money that the country fails to collect from taxes on smuggling from Paraguay would be enough to build 3.800 nurseries, 21 kilometers of roads or 285 thousand popular houses," he compared.

At the workshop, journalist Mauri König told how gangs work: from using money to corrupt public officials to employing minors to transport goods. According to him, Paraguay remains the main gateway for illegal products in the country - and among all types, cigarettes are the most important item, representing 67% of contraband. "Today, organized crime profits more by bringing cigarettes illegally from Paraguay than by trafficking cocaine and marijuana together," he said.

König showed the cost spreadsheet for criminals, who reserve about 20% of their revenue to pay for illegal transportation and kickbacks. Citing the study The Cost of Smuggling, released two months ago by the Institute for Economic and Social Development of Borders (Idesf), said that smugglers get to profit more than 900% of the invested capital, as in the case of medicines. "About 20% of the drugs consumed in the country are smuggled," he said. "Still, there is a cultural relativization that attaches little importance to crime."

At the end of the workshop, König listed a number of aspects of smuggling that can be developed through investigative reporting and invited journalists to devote themselves more to the subject.

The smugglers' profit

 

Contraband material

 

 

For more information about the events, click here

 

Congress creates parliamentary front to combat smuggling

Mixed Parliamentary Front to Combat Smuggling
Mixed Parliamentary Front to Combat Smuggling

Brazil needs to do more to win the war on smuggling, and the path is through the creation of tougher laws and the collection of more effective actions by the public authorities. That was the reason that led 202 federal deputies and 23 senators to create the Mixed Parliamentary Front to Combat Smuggling and Counterfeiting, officially established on May 14, in the National Congress, in Brasilia.

The ceremony was attended by parliamentarians and representatives of the executive, public prosecutors, judiciary and more than 50 civil society associations, such as the Movement for the Defense of the Brazilian Legal Market, created in September 2014 and led by the ETCO-Institute Brazilian Competition Ethics Committee and the FNPC-National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality.

The parliamentary front is chaired by federal deputy Efraim Filho (DEM / PB), one of the parliamentarians most dedicated to combating smuggling. He was the author, for example, of the project approved in 2014 that modified the penal code and increased the penalties for this crime, which used to range from one to four years, to two to five years. According to the deputy, the front will focus on four lines of action: 1) Drafting bills against counterfeiting and smuggling; 2) Charge governmental actions at the federal, state and municipal levels to combat these crimes; 3) Hold debates and public hearings to involve the whole of society in discussing the problem; and 4) Study and implement other initiatives to reduce smuggling.

 

Loss of driver's license and CNPJ

As a first act, deputy Efraim Filho filed with the Chamber of Deputies the Bill 1530/15, which toughens penalties for crime. The proposal provides for three new mechanisms to curb smuggling. The first is the loss of a driver's license for anyone caught in the act carrying smuggled goods. The fear of suffering this punishment should reduce the supply of drivers willing to take risks in driving vehicles with illegal products.

The second is the cassation for five years of the CNPJ of companies condemned for transporting, distributing, storing or selling contraband products. The third mechanism seeks to encourage complaints against the illegal trade in these goods. It makes it mandatory to display cigarettes and beverages at a visible location with a sign with the following warning: “It is a crime to sell contraband cigarettes and beverages. Report it".

The president of the front intends to demand more efforts from the governments in the inspection of the borders. “It is necessary to understand that investing resources in the fight against smuggling is not a cost, but an investment,” said Efraim Filho, citing the example of Operation Ágata, carried out in 2011. “It is estimated that R $ 10 million were spent and it was possible to collect in return more than R $ 300 million. ”

Senator Ronaldo Caiado (DEM-GO), vice president of the Parliamentary Front, defended the toughening of the punishment for those who receive contraband products. "The penalty for the recipient must be four times greater than that of someone who smuggles," he said. "I believe that, in the short term, we will present a result against something that is destroying the country."

It is estimated that Brazil loses about R $ 100 billion each year due to smuggling, with negative impacts on tax collection, job losses, unfair competition with companies that comply with legal obligations, health risks of population and increased crime.

Research reveals that one in three Brazilians has already bought contraband

cover researchA survey revealed the habits of Brazilians when it comes to smuggling: a lot of people talk badly, they know it's bad, but they buy anyway. One out of three people interviewed by Datafolha confessed that they have already bought contraband products, and there is no need to go far to find these products.

Watch the article published in the Bom Dia Brasil newspaper, of 25/05.

Click here

 

Brazilians say smuggling brings serious damage to the country

cover researchThe trade in smuggled products is widely condemned by the Brazilian population. Unprecedented research commissioned by the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (ETCO) to the Datafolha Institute, with the support of the Movement in Defense of the Brazilian Legal Market, shows that 77% of respondents agree that smuggled products bring harm to the country and the population and that, for 80 %, these illegal products harm the activity of commerce and industry in Brazil.

The vast majority of Brazilians (92%) believe that if the price of products sold legally in the country were lower, Brazilians would stop buying contraband products. This expectation is mostly shared, with minimum rates of 90%, by all segments analyzed in the survey.

Most respondents also agree that smuggled products are cheaper because they do not pay due taxes (89%), do not have to comply with inspection rules (87%), and are made from poorer quality materials (77%) .

Another important fact of the survey is that 60% of respondents say they have difficulty in recognizing smuggled and counterfeit products in relation to those produced legally.

When the topic is criminality, for 86% of respondents smuggled products encourage organized crime and drug trafficking. Likewise, 83% agree that it is a crime to sell contraband products and 74% that it is a criminal act to buy contraband products.

The Federal Government is considered, by 48% of the interviewees, as the main responsible for the entrance of contraband in the country. Only 5% of respondents consider the work done by the federal authorities to be very efficient and the rest are divided between those who consider it to be somewhat efficient (50%) or not at all efficient (40%).

The solution
The efficiency of some measures to combat smuggling were also assessed in the survey. For 61% of respondents, reinforced border policing and the adoption of tougher penalties for the crime of smuggling are seen as very efficient, the highest rate among the alternatives analyzed; then there is the total blockade of borders by the federal police (53%) and employment incentive programs on both sides of the border (53%), in addition to the tax issue.

Research
It is quantitative with a personal approach. The interviews were conducted between April 22nd and 24th across the country with people over 16 years old, totaling 2.401 interviews. The national sample's margin of error is 2 points more or less.

Movement in Defense of the Brazilian Legal Market
It is a coalition created in 2014 by the Instituto de Ética Concorrencial (ETCO) and the National Forum to Combat Piracy and Illegality (FNCP). This Movement comprises more than 70 entities representing different sectors of the economy affected by illegality in Brazil (smuggling, counterfeiting, piracy and evasion)

The Movement aims to mobilize civil society and government agents around proposals and actions that will contribute to reducing these deviations.