LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Smuggler Javier Apaza is upfront about his activities. "Pay taxes? Oh no. We're just working, we are not stealing," he says.

Many of the smugglers here believe it is their right to buy and sell products without paying local duties. Most feel they are not committing a felony.

"The profitability that contraband generates is very high if you compare it with other economic activities. People prefer it," Peruvian customs agent Cesar Linares says.

The Desaguadero Bridge, which is the main border crossing between Peru and Bolivia, is one of Peru's top smuggling routes. Smugglers use it to transport everything from clothes, computers, food and fuel.

The area becomes very busy on Tuesdays and Fridays, as traffickers have organized themselves to move merchandise on these days when the goods are sold in fairs in Bolivia. It's an efficient system that quickly gets the products into the hands of distributors who wait around in huge trucks to take the products to Peru.

"The profitability that contraband generates is very high if you compare it with other economic activities. People prefer it. And they don't have a tradition of paying taxes. In other words they haven't understood that smuggling is a crime," customs agent Linares says.

"Convoys of trucks enter through the northern area of Puno," he said. "They call it the snake. We've sometimes counted 100 trucks altogether, and each one carries six to seven armed guards to protect the merchandise."

In spite of law enforcement's better efforts, smuggling is benefiting the local economy. Juliaca, a two-hour drive from Desaguadero, has become the region's contraband capital.

Authorities believe 60 percent of the population here are involved in trafficking goods. Juliaca remains very poor, in spite of its city center which is bustling with trucks and thousands of motorcycles turned-taxis known as "mototaxis", which create traffic chaos throughout the day.

"There is unfair competition with the national industry. It generates unemployment because businesses, who pay taxes, cannot match the cost of smuggled goods," one local official says.

And now the situation is getting more complicated. Smugglers are allying themselves with drug traffickers and money launderers "and combating them has become very dangerous."

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