It is 4.15pm and a Paraguayan district attorney accompanied by high-heeled secretaries and policemen with semi-automatic weapons saunters into the Lai Lai Centre in downtown Ciudad del Este to carry out a raid.

The official walks the corridors of the shopping centre. It is crammed with fake goods mainly from China - electronics, CDs, DVDs and other illegal merchandise that has turned the border town butting Brazil and Argentina into a symbol of smuggling and counterfeit activity in South America.