An Giang: Smugglers rent agricultural land to open road for transporting contraband

Smuggled goods were seized by An Giang Customs.

According to Steering Committee 389 of An Giang, over the past time, An Giang forces have drastically implemented in parallel with many pandemic prevention and anti-smuggling solutions on the border, which have made the smuggling operation in the area decrease in size, number, organisation and complexity.

However, at some times when the demand is high, smugglers still find ways to carry out smuggling activities quietly, causing a complex situation, especially for smuggled cigarettes.

Recently, smugglers have sent people to watch closely activities, as well as activities of competent forces and officials to proactively notify for avoidance.

Notably, there has been a situation where people rent land from farmers to open roads so they can transport smuggled goods across the border. This situation has arisen in the border area of ​​Chau Doc city and was stopped by anti-smuggling forces in time.

For cigarettes, in recent times, due to high demand and huge gap of price difference, especially due to the impact of pandemic prevention and control, the supply on the domestic market has been limited and there has even been the occasional scarcity. From that, smugglers found ways to transport across the border and go deep into the domestic market, with sophisticated, organised and flexible methods and tricks.

According to the survey, there were times the price of cigarettes was very high, about 900 VND/pack in the border area and it increased gradually when cigarettes were transported deep inland. Specifically, in Cambodia, the prices of Hero and Jet cigarettes were VND 13,500/pack and VND 16,500/pack and when they were transported to Long Xuyen the price went to VND 14,400 and VND 17,400 respectively; in Can Tho, Hero price hit VND 15,000/pack and Jet VND 18,000/pack.

In particular, the main mode of operation was still two-wheel motorcycles to transport goods from the border to the inland. Competent forces seized nearly 500,000 packs of smuggled cigarettes.

For refrigeration and electronics, after social distancing, it has increased again due to an increase in demand during hot weather, typically Customs forces coordinated to tackle two cases of illegal transportation with a large number of these items in the border area of ​​An Phu district in May. The total value of exhibits seizure was more than VND 1.7 billion.

In the first six months of 2020, the anti-smuggling forces of An Giang inspected and discovered violations of 1,102 sales, transport of banned and smuggled goods, up 7.8% over the same period. The total value of exhibits was VND 28 billion.

Competent forces prosecuted 25 cases, with 30 subjects (an increase of seven cases and 13 subjects over the same period) for "trading, transporting banned goods and smuggled goods"

Implementing Plan No. 38/KH-BCD dated June 5, 2020 of the provincial Steering Committee 389, the permanent agency of provincial Steering Committee 389 has cooperated with sectors and competent units to collect and organise the destruction of confiscated smuggled cigarettes eligible for product quality, as determined by the Council for Evaluation and Classification of the Quality of Confiscated Smuggled Cigarettes - Department of Science and Technology. The total amount of smuggled cigarettes collected and destroyed was more than 950,000 packs of all kinds.