A Paraguayan politician with ties to the cigarette industry was shot dead while driving in the Alto Parana province, close to the border with Brazil.
Marcial Moran Arevalo was a local politician in the Paraguayan city of Salto del Guaira, as well as a cigarette entrepreneur.
Moran was shot with a high-caliber bullet at 4 p.m. on Thursday after his car was stopped by four masked gunmen, according to reports. He was found in the driver's seat with his seatbelt still fastened.
Paraguayan media said that his death could be related to his alleged connections to the smuggling of contraband cigarettes to Argentina and Brazil.
As InSight has reported, the border between Paraguay and Brazil is increasingly a base of trafficking operations for Brazilian criminal groups, amongst others.
