The General Customs of the Republic (AGR) reported that there has been an increase in the illegal currency trafficking at the country's airports, due to attempts to take out money without authorization and in amounts exceeding those allowed by the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC).
The first deputy chief of the AGR, William Pérez González, reported on the social network X about the confrontation of that state entity with a supposed increase in the illicit currency trafficking, which - he stated - “attempts to extract covertly and using different modes of operation in violation of the current regulations of the BCC.”
Through his account on the digital platform, Pérez shared photographs showing sums of money confiscated from travelers who allegedly tried to take out of the country amounts exceeding the limit of 5,000 dollars, euros, other freely convertible currencies (MLC), or Cuban pesos, imposed by the BCC.
The images show several rolls and bundles of dollars, high-denomination Cuban bills, as well as handles or extendable grips of suitcases where the rolls of money are presumed to have been inserted.
However, Customs did not provide statistics on the total amount of money seized in its recent controls, which would support the claim of an "increase in illegal currency trafficking."
In the first three months of 2024, the AGR seized 3.2 million Cuban pesos and 91,000 USD from travelers who tried to take out of the country an amount over the 5,000 pesos that is allowed for any of those currencies.
According to the released statistics, 135 violations were recorded in that quarter compared to 233 during the entire year of 2022, when 5.3 million Cuban pesos and 420,000 dollars were confiscated.
The BCC raised in March the cash limit that travelers can take out of the country to 5,000 pesos (national currency), while maintaining in effect resolution 124 of 2020, which sets the limit at 5,000 MLC for the import and export of foreign currency.
Previously, the limit for the export and import of Cuban pesos was 2,000 CUP, according to a resolution from 2019.
The new margin set in March for the national currency aimed, according to the Central Bank, “to facilitate the payment of customs duties for travelers returning to the country for the importation of goods and merchandise.”
In February, the scandalous case of the Cuban-American Mirtza Ocaña, who was then 38 years old, came to light when she was arrested at Tampa International Airport after being found with $102,709 in cash that she brought into the United States without declaring it, upon her return from a trip to Cuba.
The indictment from the Tampa Prosecutor's Office states that, between May 2023 and the date of his arrest, Ocaña made 45 trips to Cuba.
The woman later denied having ties to the former Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil Fernández, who was dismissed by the Cuban regime due to alleged acts of corruption, just three days before Ocaña's arrest.
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