Truckloads of bank notes have turned up thousands of miles away, first in Paraguay, and now in Brazil.
InSight Crime has the story: Another Massive Seizure of Venezuela Currency Deepens Mystery: Why, since the currency itself is worthless? There are at least two theories:
In the case of Brazil,
One of the possibilities authorities are considering is that the drug traffickers were using the money to purchase weapons from Venezuelan arms dealers. Two years ago, police found that Venezuelans had supplied over 100 rifles to Rio gangs, reported O Globo.
In Paraguay,
the 25 tons of bolivars were reportedly offered to counterfeiters for $1 million. That is probably the highest value that could have been fetched for a currency that has become largely worthless due to Venezuela‘s worsening economic crisis.
Then there is a likelihood of money laundering, too.
Read the InSight Crime analysis.
The O Globo article (link in Portuguese) is here.
It will probably be sold for wallpaper.