InSight Crime’s reporting and investigations often reach the desks of diplomats, security officials and politicians. The latest example occurred in late October during a commission of Paraguay’s Senate that tackled smuggling.
There, Representative Abel González denounced the role of corrupt police, showing a video that he alleged to be of officers escorting a convoy of vehicles involved in contraband. González expressed alarm about a surge in smuggling, supporting his argument with an InSight Crime report that concluded, using figures collected by other institutions, that 40 percent of Paraguay’s gross domestic product (GDP) comes from contraband.
The debate may influence the national agenda, as the representative requested to modify the customs code. The coordinator of the country’s anti-contraband unit, Emilio Fuster, responded with an official statement assuring the public that Paraguayan authorities were investigating the issue and that he had filed a complaint with prosecutors.