Since the beginning of August 2014, the customs in all Brazilian borders have the order to confiscate and hold all drones. Brazil is preparing the rules for flying drones but since they are not ready yet they discovered a way to block the flying and the arrival of new units. They are blocking all RC equipment based on the rule that they all must be authorized with the ANATEL - our FCC - and on the present date there are none. No Futaba, DJI, Spektrum, JR, Graupner or even Turnigy are authorized. Our police here is being so narrow minded that I have a friend that was coming from the USA with a DJI S1000 frame and lost his equipment. They claim that there were no Radio at that point but a radio must be installed to make it work, so it's not allowed. Yes I know it's really stupid. I haven't heard anything about MoVIs or video links yet, but I know some cases of standalone Futaba radios beeing held. We hope to have this situation fixed soon as some importers are in the process to authorize some brands, but this can take from 1 to 6 months. So my recommendation, unfortunately, is: Avoid coming to Brazil with a drone or RC equipment at all costs. And keep an eye on the news...
Thanks for posting that Arthur. That's a pretty heavy-handed policy isn't it? I hope they don't transition into confiscating UAVs already in Brazil! Andy.
Arthur sorry to hear this. What does this do to operators that are already in Brazil? Say hello to the other half for me.
Actually there were some reports of Phantom pilots that lost their equipment inside Brazil also. The problem is that our FCC never looked after non authorized RC equipment before so the importers that used to register them decided to stop doing this as this costs a lot. As we are in a president election year, things got upside down here and for the first time they started a witch hunt.
I know this from some friends who had problems directly, also I've contacted the Brazilian customs in my city (I live in the border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay) and they confirmed. Here are some posts about it, all forums and you will have to use a translator, they are all in Portuguese. http://phantombrasil.com/apreensoes-da-anatel-phanton-nao-homologado/ http://www.e-voo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=173570