A \r\nrecent bill, dated July 7, 2018, reveals that El Sardinero maintains food \r\nsupplies for the Claps in partnership with Colombian entrepreneurs, although no \r\nlonger through Group Grand Limited. The company now invoices the goods to \r\nAsasi Food FZC, a \r\ncompany registered in the United Arab Emirates, which has replaced Group Grand \r\nLimited in the Saab-Pulido network<\/A>. \r\nThe customs figures also confirm that the business of El Sardinero is running. \r\nIn the first half of this year, it sent almost 100,000 tons of food to \r\nVenezuela, which makes it the Mexican company the largest exporter of products \r\nto the South American country. <\/p>\n\n In \r\n2015, the name of Jorge Carlos Fern\u00e1ndez Franc\u00e9s, owner of El Sardinero, was \r\nnews when it was discovered that, in order to evade taxes, he put Mexico City \r\nlicense plates on to a Ferrari 458 that he used to drive around Paris, Barcelona \r\nand Rome at least four years before. The registration number 415-SYL used by his \r\nsports car actually belonged to a 2003 Golf, according to car records of the \r\ngovernment of Mexico City, and it was in the name of El Sardinero. The company \r\nhas also had its clashes with the law. On December 22, 2014, the Public Service \r\nsanctioned it with a ban of just under two and a half years to enter into \r\ncontracts with federal agencies and entities, and a fine of 672,000 pesos \r\n(around $ 34,000), for falsifying the address in a public tender. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\n It \r\nis not the only Mexican company linked to the Clap business, engaged in \r\nirregularities. The Landsmanas Dymensztejn family, owner of La Cosmopolitana and \r\nProductos Serel, was penalized in July 2014 by health authorities of the \r\nGovernment of Jalisco, province of western Mexico, after verifying that they \r\nsold food with Salmonella in the Puente Grande prison. It is the same \r\nconglomerate that sells Kosland milk powder, manufactured by Serel Products, \r\nwhich arrives in Venezuela in the Clap combos. The brand was one of the worst in \r\nnutritional terms after the physical-chemical analysis conducted by the \r\nInstitute of Food Science and Technology of Universidad Central de Venezuela \r\n(UCV) practiced on several Mexican milks at the request of Armando.info. \r\nThe product showed \r\nexcess carbohydrates and sodium, but low calcium levels<\/A>, \r\nto the point that children had to consume 24.8 glasses to cover their daily \r\ncalcium supply instead of the 1.8 glasses that are normally required. Clap \r\ncombos have also contained lentils, beans and sugar from the same Kosland brand \r\nof Serel Products.<\/p>\n\n The \r\ncompany was sanctioned because of what happened in the Puente Grande prison. \r\nAlthough the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) continues receiving \r\ncomplaints from inmates' families about \"poor-quality and unhygienic food\" from \r\nLa Cosmopolitana, the millionaire contracts to provide food to several Mexican \r\nprisons have not ceased and it has just obtained a new one for 143 million \r\nMexican pesos (just over 7.1 million dollars) to offer food services to the \r\ninmates of the Centers for Social Reintegration and Adolescents of the State of \r\nBaja California, northwest from Mexico. According to Contrabook, La \r\nCosmopolitana accrues 4,623 million pesos (around 230 million dollars) for \r\npublic contracts in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n Customs \r\nreports, however, seem to indicate that this year the participation of La \r\nCosmopolitana and Productos Serel in food shipments to Venezuela has dropped. In \r\nthe first half of year, shipments total around 150 tons, well below El Sardinero \r\nor Grupo Brandon, a dummy company that in 2018 has monopolized the sale of milk \r\npowder for Claps, one of the products from which Government intermediaries get \r\nmore financial gain.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n The \r\nfood combos distributed by Maduro\u2019s Government have \r\nincluded several powdered milk \r\nbrands of Grupo Brandon<\/A>, \r\nwhich are unknown in the Mexican market and of dubious quality. Incorporated in \r\n2004, Brandon changed ownership in April 2017, shortly before starting its \r\nexports to Venezuela. Since then, the company address on the packaging of the \r\nproduct has changed. <\/p>\n\n\n An \r\ninvoice of July 18, 2018 allows establishing the connection with the network of \r\nAlex Saab and \u00c1lvaro Pulido. Like El Sardinero, Grupo Brandon billed Asasi Food \r\nFZC, the company registered in the United Arab Emirates, the goods that would \r\neventually be received in Venezuela by Corporaci\u00f3n \u00danica de Servicios \r\nProductivos y Alimentarios (Sole Corporation of Productive and Food Services \r\n-Cuspal), attached to the Ministry of Food.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n The \r\ndocument shows that Grupo Brandon sold the kilo of milk from brands like Vilec, \r\nSanta Paula and Suprema to Asasi Food FZC, at $ 2.20.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n Although \r\nthe product price billed by the intermediaries to the Government of Maduro was \r\nnot verified for this report, in 2017, Alex Saab and \r\n\u00c1lvaro Pulido, through Group Grand Limited, first charged the kilo of Mexican \r\nmilk powder at 4.75 dollars to the Government of the State of T\u00e1chira, and \r\nmonths later, charged it at almost 7 dollars to Cuspal<\/A>, \r\nas part of the two contracts reached with the Venezuelan authorities. Both \r\nprices double and more than triplicate, respectively, the price set by Brandon \r\nfor the product put in this year\u2019s July.<\/p>\n\n Customs \r\ninformation reveals that in the first half of year, Grupo Brandon exported \r\nalmost 30,000 tons to Venezuela, barely behind El Sardinero and Rice & \r\nBeans, the other company that is winning big time in Mexico with the Venezuelan \r\ngovernment program.<\/p>\n\n\n Entrepreneur \r\nArist\u00f3teles Vaca P\u00e9rez, originally from the state of Guanajuato in central \r\nMexico, is the man behind Rice & Beans and Almacenes Vaca. This last one \r\nallowed him to stood out as one of the entrepreneurs preferred by Enrique Pe\u00f1a \r\nNieto. Not in vain, in this six-year period to be closed, he obtained about 600 \r\ncontracts by direct award and through Diconsa, the largest social network of \r\ngrocery stores in Mexico, responsible for ensuring the distribution of food to \r\nthe most financially vulnerable population.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n Rice \r\n& Beans was the vehicle through which the tycoon reached the Clap business. \r\nFrom this year\u2019s January and June alone, the company placed almost 75,000 tons \r\nof food in Venezuelan ports. As with El Sardinero and Grupo Brandon, exports are \r\nmade through the network of Alex Saab and \u00c1lvaro Pulido. For example, on July \r\n17, 2018, Rice & Beans sold $ 220,104 in food to Mulberry Proje Yatirim, a \r\nTurkish company that rounds off the intermediation scheme designed by the \r\nColombian business duo.<\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/04112018-5.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Captive Markets<\/h2>\n\n\n
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