Operation Cataracts, which is being carried out on the Brazilian border with Paraguay, confiscated US$ 11,349,614 in contraband merchandise in the first three months of this year, mostly from Ciudad del Este, in Paraguay.
This information was provided by Sérgio Lorente, head of the Customs Enforcement Division of the Federal Revenue office.
The operation represents a joint effort initiated in November by the Federal Revenue Agency, the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, and the Office of Criminal Investigations to keep contraband merchandise from entering the country.
During this period the Federal Revenue Agency detained 116 buses in the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina. 104 of the buses were stopped in the region of Foz do Iguaçu, in Paraná state.
Lorente recalled that the border purchase quota, which, through an agreement between Brazil and Paraguay, will be raised from US$ 150 to US$ 300, applies exclusively to tourists or items bought for personal use and carried in accompanied baggage and cannot contribute to any kind of illegal border trade.
If the product is to be resold, its entry into Brazil must meet all of the Federal Revenue Agency’s importation requirements, Lorente stated.
ABr