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Inspection teams from the Mozambican Tax Authority (AT) on Thursday night aborted an attempt to smuggle goods valued at 13 million meticais (about 209,000 US dollars) into the country from South Africa, using forged documents.
According to a Monday AT press release, the goods, carried in three Interlink trucks, included 2,240 boxes of the energy drink Dragon, 960 boxes of Cremora powdered milk, 1,200 boxes of Ricoffy instant coffee, 720 bags of dog food, each weighing eight kilos, and 5,090 boxes of Benny instant soup. The AT calculates that these goods should have paid customs duties of over five million meticais.
These seizures, the AT said, were the result of lengthy research and intelligence work into the volumes of goods passing through the Ressano Garcia frontier post on the border between South Africa and Mozambique.
The three drivers of the trucks, all South African citizens, were arrested. The documents they presented were forgeries, which could not be recognised by the Single Electronic Window system used by Mozambican customs. They bore stamps which were not those used by the verification and examination sectors at the border.
The AT also found that the supposed customs broker who handled the forged dispatch for the three trucks is not a member of the Chamber of Customs Brokers of Mozambique, which licences this activity.
The AT says it is continuing its investigations to discover who owns the merchandise and dismantle the criminal network that organises such fairly sophisticated smuggling operations.
Should the owner wish to recover the merchandise he will have to pay both the customs duties and heavy fines. Otherwise the goods will simply be confiscated.
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