Bolivia: Offensive Against Smuggling Maintained
Smuggling Products Seized by the Bolivian Army, Oct 2024 Photo: @LaPatriaDigital
October 2, 2024 Hour: 5:40 pm
Another operation intercepted a truck illegally transporting 26,000 liters of diesel, worth more than 97,000 Bolivianos (nearly 15,000 dollars).
Bolivia is today maintaining an anti-smuggling offensive after seizing a shipment of sugar, maize, potatoes and fuel valued at 867,341 Bolivianos (more than 120,000 dollars) that criminals intended to move to neighboring countries.
Related:
At Least Six Killed and Eight Wounded in a Car Crash in Western Bolivia
According to Luis Amílcar Velásquez, Vice-Minister for the Fight against Smuggling, the military from the Strategic Operational Command for the Fight against Smuggling (CEO-LCC) carried out the operations and seized vehicles loaded with potatoes, worth 50,000 Bolivianos (more than seven thousand dollars).
He added that 500 quintals of corn and 5,120 kilograms of chicken destined for Peru, valued at 81,920 Bolivianos (almost 12,000 dollars), were also seized.
Another operation intercepted a truck illegally transporting 26,000 liters of diesel, worth more than 97,000 Bolivianos (nearly 15,000 dollars).
The authority informed that four vehicles were intercepted with two thousand quintals of corn, a volume valued at 220,000 Bolivianos (more than 30,000 dollars), as well as another means of transport with 580 quintals of sugar, whose price was valued at 116,000 Bolivianos (almost 17,000 dollars).
In the context of these operations, in Bermejo, Tarija department, two women trafficked the equivalent in Argentinean pesos of 104,181 Bolivianos (around 15,000 dollars) without being able to explain their origin, for which they were apprehended.
The CEO-LCC agents mobilized in Viacha, department of La Paz, seized a truck with 350 loads of potatoes from Peru, worth around 98,000 Bolivianos (14,000 dollars).
Likewise, they intercepted two dredges carrying maize bound for the neighboring country, with merchandise valued at 100,000 Bolivianos (around 15,000 dollars).
Velázquez reported that on Tuesday, CEO-LCC officers seized another five trucks with foodstuffs diverted to Peru, which were handed over to the Food Production Support Company (Emapa) to be sold to the population.
Interviewed by the state-run Bolivia TV channel, the vice-minister of Consumer Defense, Jorge Silva, announced the implementation of a new plan to guarantee that basic foodstuffs reach consumers and are not diverted in what he called ‘reverse smuggling’.
He said that in the past, goods from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru were smuggled in, but now, with prices in those territories double or triple those in Bolivia, Bolivian goods are sold illegally there.
The deputy minister avoided giving further details of the new plan so as not to alert the network of smugglers who operate in the country and remove national products.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: EFE
