On Wednesday morning (26), the Federal Police (PF) executed twelve search and seizure warrants in the cities of Belém, Abaetetuba and Acará – in Pará –, Garanhuns – in Pernambuco – and Arapiraca – Alagoas – against a specialized criminal organization. in cigarette smuggling. The Federal Court determined the blocking of money up to the limit of R$ 8 million from those involved and from a company used to launder money from the group.
The investigations began in 2020, with the arrest of four people in the act and the seizure of about three thousand boxes of clandestine cigarettes, in Itapera, Maranhão. The PF also discovered that a group from Pará used irregular ports on the Maranhão coast to drop off a shipment of cigarettes from Suriname.
If convicted, those investigated can be held accountable for the crimes of smuggling and criminal association, whose penalty can reach thirteen years in prison.
The name of the operation, called Manguda, comes from the popular imagination of Ludovica, a kind of ghostly entity that haunted the port region of São Luís, in Maranhão, where Praça Gonçalves Dias is today.
Source: CNN Brasil
