THE FACULTY OF ENTRY, SEARCH AND SEIZURE OF THE CUSTOMS SERVICE IN RELATION TO ILLICIT EVIDENCE IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

In accordance with the article 23 of its Organic Law, The National Customs Service has the capability to instruct, at the administrative headquarters, the entry, filing and seizure in the places where the goods to be controlled are located or are reasonably presumed to be found, as well as books, papers, records of any nature and documents related to them. The
material collected at this headquarters can be presented as evidence in a criminal proceeding, becoming essential an adequate admissibility control in order to avoid the incorporation of illegal evidence. This paper postulates that the Supervisory court in preliminary proceedings, at the time of pronouncing on the admissibility of the evidence collected in the customs inspection procedure must not only analyze that the administrative act that orders the entry, filing and seizure has been issued by a competent authority within their scope of authority, but also that the principle of proportionality has been strictly respected in the affectation of the right to privacy and that the provisions of Article 25 of the National Customs Service Organic Law have been fully complied with. In this regard, it is essential that the court weighs in a complete and well-founded manner the need for administrative diligence, the legal right protected by the criminal code of article 168 of the Customs Ordinance in relation to articles 179 and 181 of the same normative text, and the intensity of the affectation of the right, establishing admissibility parameters according to the circumstances of the specific case that allows balancing the three aspects mentioned above.