The National Customs Service retained 2,700 kilos of new clothes from the United States. Officials of the Customs Enforcement Administration keep the items in a customs warehouse, located in Heredia.
There were 259 packages of new clothing of recognized brands. These products had not been declared at the time of import by the customs agent. Also, they were not included in the commercial invoice that supported the customs declaration.
The customs authorities are evaluating the products to determine if the amount of unpaid taxes exceeds the threshold of $5,000 established in article 211 of the General Customs Law.
Situations like these violate the General Customs Law, so those responsible could be punished with fines of up to four times the amount of taxes left to receive, plus interests, and even prison sentences of up to 15 years,”
said Wilson Céspedes, General Director of Customs.
The event would constitute customs tax fraud, which could be qualified as aggravated due to the possible participation of a customs warehouse keeper, since the latter allowed the goods to remain in the container unit.