The Federal Police (PF) this Tuesday (31) executed nineteen arrest warrants for trucks and other vehicles in Chapecó and Cordilheira Alta, in Santa Catarina, from a criminal organization specialized in smuggling cigarettes from Paraguay to the southern states of Brazil.
This is the second phase of the “Carcinoma” operation, which seeks to financially reach the organization through the seizure of assets that enable the reimbursement of losses and prevent the crime from happening again.
Investigations show that the organization’s leaders owned a dealership of fake trucks, and enticed drivers to transport the smuggled cigarettes, and that they would benefit soon after a certain number of trips with the transfer of the truck. This way of operating was intended to free the leaders from responsibility if the cargo was seized and the driver arrested.
During the investigations, 12 million packs of smuggled cigarettes and 41 trucks were seized. The estimated value of the cargo is R$ 60 million, and around R$ 30 million in evaded taxes. Police also arrested 44 people in the act.
With the first phase of the operation in November 2021, the PF served ten preventive arrest warrants and 19 search and seizure warrants. The actions were carried out in Tenente Portela and Três Passos, in Rio Grande do Sul, in the Santa Catarina municipalities of Chapecó, São Miguel do Oeste and Cordilheira Alta, and in Paraná, in the cities of Guaíra, Cascavel, Umuarama and Floresta.
The name of the operation, “Carcinoma”, refers to a type of cancer, relating not only to the damage caused by cigarettes to health, but also because the criminal organization enticed people with no criminal record, promising advantages according to the success of the activity. illicit, a kind of “criminal metastasis”.
Source: CNN Brasil
