The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) participated last week in three operations to apprehend counterfeit and smuggled pesticides together with the Federal Police (PF), Federal Highway Police (PRF), Civil Police of São Paulo (PC SP) in the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo.
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The actions aimed to curb the smuggling and sale of irregular products in Brazil.
In the state of Mato Grosso, the action with the PRF seized 8 tons of pesticides of Chinese origin, without an invoice, in a truck on BR-163, in Rondonópolis. The driver of the vehicle was arrested and must answer for smuggling.
In Mato Grosso do Sul, Mapa worked together with the Federal Police in an operation launched to comply with search and seizure warrants, after investigations of cargo previously seized with pesticides with counterfeit labels.
In the searches, gallons of chemical substances were seized, among other materials, for expert analysis.
In São Paulo, the joint action with the Civil Police and Ibama took place in Americana. At the site, 75 tons of smuggled pesticides were seized in packages with modified labels that would be transported to the states of Mato Grosso and Goiás.
Among the collected pesticides, there was the herbicide Paraquat, which had its use banned in Brazil in 2020 as a result of toxicological reassessment carried out by Anvisa.
During the inspection action in São Paulo, federal agricultural inspectors assisted in the work by analyzing suspicious products in real time with NIR equipment, Near Infrared Spectrometer.
The portable device allows a preliminary result on the pesticide samples to be obtained in a few minutes. The approximate value of the seized products is estimated at R$ 43 million. Violators will be fined and will respond administratively.
Because they are not registered on the map, pesticides considered illegal constitute a risk for agriculture due to the lack of origin and effectiveness of the product for controlling and combating pests.
They also constitute a risk to the health of users, during the application of the product, and of food consumers due to exposure to active ingredients and unknown components, in addition to a risk to the environment, due to the exposure of fauna and flora to unknown chemical substances, which can cause deaths or serious damage to the environmental balance. ■
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