US embassy cable - 05ASUNCION1236

UNCLAS ASUNCION 001236 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR PM/DTCC  BLUE LANTERN COORDINATOR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: BEXP, PGOV, PA 
SUBJECT: BLUE LANTERN LEVEL 3: 05-965932 AND 05-967860 
 
REF: A. STATE 121643 
 
B. 97 ASUNCI 02419 
 
1. On September 21, Econoff and ARSO visited the premises 
of Vill Distribudores to complete a pre-license check per 
action request in Ref A.  Prior to the visit, Econoff spoke 
via telephone with the current proprietor of the business, 
Mr. Carlos Villasanti.  Villasanti is the son-in-law of 
former owner Carlos Villamayor.  Villasanti confirmed the 
address and contact of the business.  As noted in Ref B., 
Vill Distribudores is run from the family home in Fernando 
de la Mora, a middle-class suburb of Asuncion.  The 
e 
business office is a small room in the front of the house. 
Villasanti told Econoff that the business only uses a 
hotmail e-mail account, and that it has no other e-mail 
account or website through which it does business. 
 
2. Econoff and ARSO arrived unannounced at the Villasanti 
home to conduct the pre-license check.  During the course 
of the visit, during which they saw both the business 
office and the familys arms depository, both were 
convinced that, as noted in Ref. B, the goods being 
imported for resale by this business are most likely part 
of a supply chain feeding border towns like Pedro Juan 
Caballero, a center of drugs and arms trafficking activity. 
The guns and ammunition stored at Villasantis home are 
minimally secured, and the business appears to have no 
system of inventory control, its one employee having to 
guess how many rifles and bullets were stored in the room. 
 
3. ARSO requested and received a list, purportedly 
complete, of Villasantis customers.  When asked 
ed 
specifically who the requested guns and ammunition were 
intended for, Villasanti was evasive, claiming that he was 
simply importing them for resale to any of his customers. 
He would not identify a specific shop or individual who was 
destined to receive the merchandise contained in the 
applications listed in Ref. A. Based on the apparent 
informal nature of the business, post recommends against 
the issuance of an export license. 
 
Keane