14ymedio, Havana, 20 March 2024 — “We are surrounded by many countries,” the head of the General Customs of the Republic, Nelson Cordovés, explained this Tuesday on Cuban Television. His headaches, he said, can be attributed to two groups of travelers: “those who enter” the country with drugs, weapons and illegal cargo, and “those who leave” with more currency and cigars than allowed, and medicines that are lacking on the Island.
Cordovés attended State TV’s Round Table program with a portfolio of photographs, data and concrete examples. So far this year, 135 cases have been detected of travelers trying to take more money than the law establishes – the official equivalent of $5,000 in any foreign currency – and in 2022, this was attempted by 233 travelers.
According to the head of Customs, so far in 2024, 3.2 million pesos and 91,000 dollars have been confiscated; in 2022, 5,033 billion pesos and 420,000 dollars. The “issue of money,” Cordovés observed, has become a “trend.”
Cordovés did not explain why he omitted the figures of 2023, the year in which Mirtza Ocaña, a Cuban recently arrested in Tampa, Florida, managed to get at least 100,000 dollars off the Island. Last February, Ocaña – of whom Cordovés did not say a word – was accused by the Federal District Prosecutor’s Office of transferring that amount of money and could face up to five years in prison if she is arrested.
Cordovés did not explain why he omitted the 2023 figures, the year in which Mirtza Ocaña, a Cuban recently arrested in Tampa, United States, managed to get at least 100,000 dollars off the Island
The irregularity was not detected during any of the 45 trips that the woman made to Cuba, and despite the surveillance of which Havana boasts, it was the U.S. authorities who, after making a search, found several thousand dollars in her clothes.
As for the “insured” medicines – those that are lacking – that people try to take out, Cordovés did not give details or the names of the drugs. Cigars, on the other hand, suffer from multiple “violations” if more than the two allowed boxes, or 20 loose cigars, are taken out. So far in 2024, 141 infractions have already been committed, a figure that far exceeded the number of 99 for the previous year.
“We cannot allow them to leave the country without control, being a Cuban exportable product,” he said, claiming that people also take out the binder leaves, work tools, boxes and qualifications (rings and other ornaments of the final product).
As for what people try to bring into Cuba, Cordovés did not spare images of the objects confiscated by his colleagues throughout the Island: pistols, rifles wrapped in aluminum foil to avoid detection, pneumatic weapons that exceed the 4.5 caliber allowed for import and drugs, about which the head of Customs spoke at great length.
Firearms, brass knuckles, ammunition and pieces of any weapon, he emphasized, “are not allowed in the country.” Cordovés suggested that there is an increase in the import of spear guns for recreational purposes, such as fishing, a symptom of their “abusive use” in Cuba, but admitted that this was more of a concern for families and depended on “their own decisions.”
Regarding drugs, the official insisted that Customs let the Ministry of the Interior do the work, with 17 cases of smuggling detected this year, with 99 kilograms (218 pounds) of drugs seized, and 55 kgs (121 lbs) in 2023. “In the last 15 years we never had that high a figure,” he said.
What drugs do they try to bring in? “Many different kinds,” Cordovés said, including “the famous chemical,” which he defined as a kind of “synthetic cannabis”
What drugs do they try to bring in? “Many different kinds,” Cordovés said, including “the famous chemical,” which he defined as a kind of “synthetic cannabis.” Unlike other times, when it was common to hide the product – in the digestive system, for example – now more frequently drugs are camouflaged inside food, such as preserves and canned goods, or they are made to look like condiments. Another example is the import of prohibited pharmaceuticals. “We recently documented 73,000 tablets that smugglers tried to bring into the country,” he said.
Customs also does not allow the import of electronic cigarettes, because their use is “prohibited” according to the Ministry of Public Health. If a tourist brings one in, Customs temporarily confiscates it and allows him to take it back when he leaves,” Cordovés said.
Tariff violations, “another “scourge,” the official argued, is also extremely common. Fraudulent statements and “violations of tax regulations” have also been reported by Customs. The Mariel Container Terminal, the José Martí International Airport and the port of Santiago de Cuba continue to be the points of reference for this kind of illegal activity.
Finally, Cordovés regretted that Customs does not have enough workers. “We search at all the job fairs,” he said, and have “caught” 400 employees. They have had to use “the Armed Forces way”: Military Service. “Young people work with us at Customs, and we train them as technical assistants. Then they can be future officers,” he said.
He didn’t miss the opportunity that television gave him to promote the job once again. The sector, in terms of the economy, is doing well, he stressed. In addition, he promised those who knock on his door that there will always be a “stimulation”(a reward) for those who stand out in “the mission.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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