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On March 27, General Gustavo Franco Gómez, Director of the Tax and Customs Police (Polfa) took office, in full declaration of the country’s health and economic emergency, and after having directed the Cadet General School Santander, which in January 2019 suffered a attack of the ELN.
Since then, he and his team have not stopped the fight against trafficking organizations in the country, which, he says, also reinvented themselves during the pandemic.
The general spoke with El País and said that in the months of the pandemic alone, Polfa in the capital of the Valley carried out about 1047 control actions, obtaining the seizure of goods worth 17,360 million dollars.
Similarly, 39 enforcement actions were taken in support of Dian, allowing for the seizure of goods worth $ 7,611 million. Textiles, cigarettes, spirits, perfumery, footwear and medicines, among the most seized in the region.
You can read: ‘Jeringa’ brother was murdered in the middle of an alleged robbery in Medellín
General, how did you deal with smuggling right now?
It was very complex because there is a lot of uncertainty. But the mission of Polfa is to protect the economic order of the country as a national interest and that is why since my arrival we have started a process of formulating a strategic route, since we knew that the pandemic was about to affect human health, but also to the economic sector. We come, non-stop, making presence and control on roads, borders, ports, airports, in collaboration with Dian.
And how was that path defined?
We did a forward looking analysis that involved understanding the key variables that will move the world in the future. We identify five variables: environment and natural resources; company for generations; economic development and competitiveness, sectors that directly affect smuggling; technological development and finally communication. Based on this, we made decisions about how Polfa should act and this gave us a very important spectrum.
After that analysis, how could you explain the smuggling phenomenon in a country like ours?
Smuggling in Colombia has been going on for more than six decades; it came before the drug trade. But smuggling must be seen in a dimension of the visible and the invisible. What is visible is that there is open and technical smuggling, affecting economic sectors, employment, competitiveness, the development of free competition between businesses, tax evasion is generated. It is an invisible issue, which is something social, where the smuggler is accepted and considered a trader. This was the way it was in the world until the United Nations called it a transnational crime.
What exactly was the work with the authorities of other countries like during this pandemic?
We understood that the issue of smuggling should also be addressed with international cooperation. That is why we set up an SAI (International Alert System), which allows us to generate a direct exchange of information with other authorities and other companies and that what it gives us are proactive capabilities, that is, before the goods arrive in Colombia that we already have. information. We started working with Panama, then with the immigration and customs control service of the United States, with Ecuador, Canada, France, Germany, Spain. Also with Ameripol, which associates all the police in Latin America; with Europol and the entire police component of Europe and with Interpol.
“We must be aware of the effect that smuggling produces, which affects the economy and employment”, General Gustavo Franco, director of the Tax and Customs Police.
What kind of alerts were generated?
When we did this exercise, all kinds of alarms were generated, one of them from Europol. They have identified a good number of companies in Turkey and China involved in counterfeiting personal protection items and drugs for the treatment of Covid. Europol told us that the goods would initially reach Europe, but as the virus would later pass to America, it is likely to reach Colombia. This gave us another dimension, and we understood that in a pandemic the Polfa would not only protect the economic order of the country, but also human life, because those drugs could be more harmful than the virus itself because they were adulterated.
There was an Ivermectin attack in Ipiales and Cali, did it have something to do with that alert then?
Clear. After receiving the Europol alert, what we did was generate our alert and inform all units in the country. That’s why in July we were able to seize 3,800 boxes of Ivermectin, a shipment worth $ 135 million. It was seized on the Pan-American highway, between Ipiales and Pasto, Nariño, and was destined for Valle, in particular in Cali, where at the time an experimental activity with this drug had been authorized.
In other words, if this shipment had come to the streets of cities, any bona fide citizen could have bought it at a lower price and consumed it without knowing the consequences.
There is a current concern and it concerns something called “computer smuggling”. What is this?
The new generations are purely virtual, with a lot of connectivity and intersect with the technological development that the world is providing. When the pandemic arrived, we understood it faster because we detected it.
We have seen that smuggling networks have also reinvented themselves, as the country has entered mandatory isolation, which has resulted in the closure of factories. But the traffickers did not stop and used the web for marketing, but also to deliver all kinds of goods at home. From Polfa we started a series of virtual patrols to take over these organizations. It worked, but there is a great virtual informality because pages are created, promotion is made, but there is no formality before the state.
General, to close, how to improve internal controls so that corruption cases like that of Ambuila, to Dian de Buenaventura, do not arise?
The issue of transparency is a key factor and that is why we are working on various aspects, both in the Dian and in the Polfa. We have a very rigid Polfa incorporation mechanism; We do reliability tests like the polygraph and this is a lifelong exercise; and we are strengthening the Judicial Police to identify officers who help gangs in their misdeeds, and thus be able to bring them to criminal and disciplinary proceedings to answer for their bad deeds.
Year-end plan
“We are working with the sectors to focus on controls, well aware that the high season is coming, which is December. We have deployed investigative and verification groups throughout the national territory, but collaboration with the economic sectors is essential, because they have different data and this can allow us to anticipate this crime “.
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