Law on Smuggling and Tax Fraud Decree No. 31 (June 22, 1925)

One incurs in the criminal responsibility of fiscal defraudation: 1º By introducing into the territory of the Republic foreign merchandise without the owner or his representative having made the declaration or manifestation required by law at any of the maritime customs houses authorized for import commerce. 2º By altering in quality or quantity, to the prejudice of the Treasury, the relation of the lawful goods that are introduced, when presenting to the Customs House the invoices and bills that declare them, for the purpose of registering and assessing them. 3º By transporting from the ports or borders, toward the interior of the country, merchandise of free commerce without the bill that certifies having been presented for registration at the respective Customs House. 4º By exporting from the Republic products or fruits subject to the payment of fiscal rights without having satisfied them in full. For land exportation, the defraudation shall be proven by the fact of transiting with the products in the jurisdiction of Honduran territory that is contiguous to the dividing line with another Republic, without carrying the corresponding bill from the Administrator of Tax Revenue to legitimize the transport. 5º By appearing altered, in quality and quantity, to the prejudice of the Treasury, the content of the bundles or packages that from one port to another of the Republic are transported with the bill of lading, issued by the Customs House of origin. 6º By the fact that vessels that arrive at some port or place not authorized to load fruits or articles of the country, with the corresponding license, shall embark or disembark articles or effects of illicit commerce, or any other class of merchandise without the legal authorization corresponding. 7º By the fact of not certifying the disembarkation, with the proper formalities, of the goods that, having been purchased in the manifest, shall not be found existing in the vessel when it is inspected. 8º By the fact that any vessel that anchors in a port of the Republic, bringing some cargo, of whatever kind it may be, shall manifest coming in ballast, excepting the provisions that prudentially it may need, and which must be manifested to the respective Customs official. 9º By the fact of concealing, in case of shipwreck of whatever vessel, some part of its cargo to the respective Treasury employees, or not having given notice to the authority to whom it corresponds to know of the shipwreck and its incidences. 10º By omitting in the manifests the inclusion of some bundle or package that contains effects of illicit commerce upon the arrival of a vessel at an authorized port. 11º By the clandestine sale or disposal of meat of livestock without having satisfied the fiscal tax. 12º And in the other cases that the laws establish.

The following are crimes connected with smuggling or fiscal defraudation: 1º Resisting or seducing the representatives of the authority, having as its object the perpetration of the crimes of smuggling or fiscal defraudation. 2º The falsification or substitution of public or private documents, of marks or seals of office, or of any other particular sign of the offices of the Treasury, adopted to certify national manufacture, if such falsification or substitution is committed with the object of facilitating or concealing the crimes of smuggling or fiscal defraudation.

The circumstances that shall be appreciated in the crimes of smuggling and fiscal defraudation shall be assessed according to what is provided in the Penal Code.

If the apprehended articles were species of fiscal import, after expert examination and appraisal, the Instructing Judges shall deliver them for sale to the respective Administrator of Tax Revenue or Customs in the capital of the department or port, and to the Tax Revenue Receivers in the other localities, and they must always, when making this delivery, give notice to the referred Administrator of Tax Revenue. When these same species are brandies of less than twenty-one degrees Cartier, or fermented chicha, they shall be poured in the presence of the experts who have examined them, extending in the summary an act of this operation, which shall be signed by the same experts, and of which a copy shall be sent to the Ministry of Finance.

The officials who by this law have knowledge of the cases of fraud or smuggling or defraudation, are authorized to arrange or practice by themselves, or by means of their official agents, the examination of any house or building, rustic or urban estate, carts, carriages, pack animals, vessels and other objects in which it is presumed that articles of smuggling or defraudation are hidden or are carried, without prejudicing the proceeding that may apply against the author, in order to investigate any accident that the owner may suffer, without prejudice to the proceeding to which there is place against the author, in order to ascertain whatever accident that may occasion to the owner, without prejudice to the proceeding to which there is place against the guilty party. The owner's delegation, without justified cause, authorizes proceeding against him as an accessory, making it clear by the deposition of two witnesses. Exception is made of this provision to the residences of Diplomatic Agents, in which case the authorities shall merely give account to the Government so that it may arrange what is convenient.