A total of 78 people have been arrested in a large police operation at the Multifunctional Terminal of the Guillermón Moncada port in Santiago de Cuba. According to Canal Caribe, 59 of those arrested have already been placed in provisional prison and the rest (19) have other precautionary measures applied. They face sentences ranging from 8 to 20 years of imprisonment.
Everyone is waiting for a final verdict, said Ángel Luis Quiñones Zapata, head of the Provincial Unit for Criminal Investigations and Operations in the province. They are accused of diverting trucks loaded with rice, beans, sugar, and flour to informal markets, which supposedly were meant for the basic basket distributed through the supply booklet.
Cuban authorities responsible for the investigation ensure that they managed to "seize" 3.8 tons of imported rice, 2 tons of imported black beans, 22.6 tons of white refined sugar, and 33 tons of soybean flour. Additionally, they take for granted that this embezzlement could not have been carried out if it were not for "the number of people involved in it," stated Major Erik Miguel Martínez Ferrales, operational officer of the Economic Unit of the Ministry of the Interior.
In this operation, Cuban authorities have assessed at 9 million Cuban pesos the alleged damages caused by only two of the five crimes attributed to the accused, including embezzlement, forgery of public documents, misappropriation and receiving stolen goods.
Additionally, according to information provided by state television, 33 cargo vehicles would have participated in this operation. Of these, 26 are state-owned and the rest are private. During the raids, a house, a Lada 2106, and four tires have been seized. Additionally, cash was confiscated: 479,000 pesos, 769 dollars, and 200 euros.
Luis Felipe Garrido Torres, head of the Fiscal Verification Department, assures that in this case, the transporters reached an agreement with the supervisory and weighing staff, who charged between 9,000 and 18,000 pesos for each ton of product reported below the established weight.
For the sale of each rice truck, the accused were charging between 200,000 and 300,000 pesos. The invoices that were issued were not included in the accounting records, so the delivery could not be tracked, which was ultimately made in informal markets. There, each sack of rice was sold for 200 pesos per pound, resulting in 4 million pesos for each transporter.
To prevent the merchandise from continuing to be diverted, the Government of Santiago de Cuba chose to escort the trucks with police patrols after the alleged embezzlement was uncovered, said Waldis González Peinado, provincial vice governor.
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