Officials have confirmed that the smuggling of vehicles into Guyana is a well-organized scheme intent of robbing Government of hundreds of millions of dollars.The revelations came as two suspected illegal vehicles, a Toyota Hilux and Chevrolet Corsa, were seized from the home of the late Minister Dr Desrey Fox.Yesterday, law enforcement familiar with the smuggling of vehicles across the borders of Guyana, said that the seizure of the two vehicles is but a tip of the iceberg since there is a well-organized system and a ready demand for “cheaper vehicles”.Last week, Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Khurshid Sattaur, estimated that there may be up to 500 vehicles in Guyana that used forged documents to registered them.Officials tell Kaieteur News that this figure is way more.Recently, a pickup seized on the Lethem/Georgetown road, was brought to Georgetown after alert Customs officials discovered that the colour on the registration was different from the actual color of the vehicle.“GRA officials brought the vehicle and the driver to Georgetown to Customs House, Main Street. The driver of the vehicle jumped out and escaped.”Still in another recent case, GRA is working on a taxi service in Springlands, Berbice,Cheap Jerseys Online, brought in two Toyota cars and kept them illegally using documents for older vehicles.With each vehicle affixed with its individual number called the vehicle identification number (VIN) or as it called locally chassis number, “in many cases, these people involved would fix on VIN number from crashed or older vehicles to avoid paying the taxes.”BerbiceIn the Berbice area, vehicles entering from Suriname would use the ferry crossing and then given two weeks to return. “What happens in some cases are that the drivers who bring them across are Surinamese nationals who after delivering to someone waiting, would jump on the back track boat and return to Suriname.” So there is no evidence that the vehicle ever left Guyana.Suriname drivers are used since they would attract less suspicion than a Guyanese driver bringing the vehicle across.According to the official,Jerseys Cheap NFL, in most cases, persons from the City would go down to Berbice with number plates and switch the Surinamese ones. The vehicle coming to Georgetown would simply disappear without a trace and later turn up at the home or workshop.A vehicle, like the popular Toyota Carina 212, could go for as low as around $800,000 in Suriname. With payments to the driver for bringing it across, ferry crossing and minor expenses, persons are still paying way below the $2M plus cost that a car of this model would attract if purchased legally.In the Berbice area, there have been reports that some cars are smuggled across in the dead of the night on pontoons for less than $150,Wholesale NFL Jerseys,000.“It is a big problem. Unless there is an accident or police have specific information and would check the vehicles thoroughly, it is difficult to pick up the illegal ones.LethemWith the commissioning of the Takutu Bridge, at the Guyana/Brazil border earlier this year, the official yesterday said that there are problems in the Lethem area.“There is a kind of arrangement that vehicles coming from Brazil to Lethem are allowed to stay for a day without having to get a permit. In Lethem there are many vehicles that have been there for months.”According to the official, it may that while GRA would register the vehicles entering,Adrian Wilson Cardinals Jersey, the area lacks the capacity to follow-up on vehicles that do not return after the stipulated 24-hours is up.“I know of one man who was driving around for eight years…eight years, in a Brazilian registered vehicle in Lethem. There is even a Brazilian-registered vehicle doing taxi work in Lethem.”In recent years, the popular “CG” motor-cycles were rampantly stolen in Brazil and brought to Guyana.“There were either ridden to Georgetown or smuggled aboard trucks coming to the city. But these incidents have eased considerably as local police have clamped down.”So how do people hoodwink the system at GRA? According to the official, the record system at the GRA Licence and Revenue Office, was manual.“What happen was there was help from staffers there. One area used was the registration of tractors. Many farmers, after the first registration where a card would have been compiled, would not return to get new road licences.”These cards were used to issue road licences for the new, illegal vehicles, at one point in time, the official said.However, the house of cards may now come crashing down. Recently, GRA announced that it has started computerizing the manual card sy