The weekend seizure of merchandise imported by Negocios Sasmeg from China has sparked the president of the company, Jose Then Rodriguez, to demand that the Customs Agency (DGA) Director Luis Sanchez Diaz immediately retract his allegations of smuggling and release the goods to the company. He has given the DGA official 24 hours before he says he will take it to court on charges of slander.

He says he has tried numerous times to present his documentation, pay his taxes and retrieve his shipment, which arrived in the Multimoda Caucedo Port in December of 2006, but was thwarted on every attempt by Customs agents allegedly under the instruction of the Director.

The company is quoted as saying that in spite of their efforts "Customs has tried to give the appearance of legality to an attempted confiscation of merchandise trying to allege that a contraband has taken place which in reality doesn't exist."