(CBS) Deep in South America, just miles from the beauty of Brazil's Iguacu Falls, is one of the most lawless places in the world. It's the Tri-border area, where three countries — Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil — meet. Call if the "Crossroads of Crime."
The area is a smuggler's paradise. As CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports, it's home to the largest illicit economy in the Western Hemisphere, and trafficking in everything from drugs to arms to counterfeit goods is a 24/7 unchecked operation. Illegal trade in the area costs American companies hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Almost all the activity takes place on the Paraguayan side of the border, in the wild west jungle town of Ciudad del Este. What's unusual is that most of the trade is run by members of a large and influential Middle Eastern population, many of whom immigrated to the area from Lebanon and Syria in the 1970s. Some are making hufe amounts of money off illicit trade, and Western authorities believe they're sending some of that money to terror groups in the Mideast.
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Sources in the State Department tell CBS News that, at one point, there were seven terrorist training camps in the Tri-border region, and they have no doubt the area is still a safe haven for terrorists.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/06/eveningnews/main1375945.shtml+++++++++++++++
This report was the first of (at least two) that CBS News is doing on smuggling in Paraguay. It follows reports from last summer raising questions about U.S. military operations in Paraguay, which the government sought to dispel.
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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0804-08.htm
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