Federal Police (PF) identified a network of direct smuggling between the Tepito district in Mexico City and Guanajuato, for the sale and distribution of illegal cigarettes in this state, reported The Alliance Against Illegal Products.
The Alliance, formed by companies, authorities and organizations in favor of legality, said the PF intelligence work led to the confiscation of 640,000 cigarettes smuggled into the branch of the parcel service Flecha Amarilla Group, which were shipped from the neighborhood of Tepito.
The operation, which was carried out by elements commanded by Commissioner Miguel Angel Simental, state coordinator of the Federal Police in Guanajuato, took place on May 16 in the city of Leon, where they inspected various branches of package delivery companies.
It was in the facilities of the company “Grupo Flecha Amarilla”, located at number 402 of Calle Sion, Villa de las Flores, city of Leon, where Federal Police investigators were attended by the regional manager of the company, who said that in the place intended for storage of packages were 64 boxes, which seemed “suspicious because it revealed that these were cigarettess and no one had come to pick them up.”
The suspicious packages, that only had two tracking numbers destined for the cities of Salamanca and Irapuato, were opened by company personnel in the presence of elements of the Federal Police, and each of them came with 50 packs of cigarettes, which made a total of 640,000 cigarettes.
The Alliance added that the confiscated products corresponded to Marshall, Blend, Type, Nise, Baisha, Jaisalmer and Farstar brands, which precisely have been identified as illegal by the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk (COFEPRIS), by failure to comply with health standards and paying taxes.
Intelligence work by the Federal Police identified that the distribution network has an international reach, since the products leave China by boat, sail to ports in Belize, and hence are introduced to Mexico via smuggling through customs in Quintana Roo.
From the border, the product takes a journey by land of a thousand 150 kilometers to the City of Mexico to be stored in the neighborhood of Tepito, the main center for distribution of illegal cigarettes throughout the country, where there are even branches of different courier companies and parcel services to send the product to the different states of the country.
According to research of the Federal Police, on the border between Mexico and Belize, the product has a cost of three pesos per pack, but the smugglers offer the option of bringing the product to the neighborhood of Tepito, at a cost six pesos per pack.
It has been found that the final consumer price ranges from 10 to 15 pesos per pack, which means millions of pesos that are not paid for taxes. A legal product reaches 35 pesos by the heavy tax burden that applies to them, Of the 20 cigarettes included in the package, 14 cover the cost of taxes.
The Alliance highlighted the efforts made by the Federal Police and in particular by the elements of the research area and the delegation of the institution in Guanajuato, since it represents a blow to the strong presence that cigarette smuggling in that state already has.
Currently it is estimated that 17 percent of the national cigarette market is in the hands of illegal products.
Source. ElSoldeLeon
