Anti-drug Customs Sector: Victory succeeds victories

	Ha Tinh Customs coordinates to seize 6,000 tablets of ecstacy
	Total of 17,321 cases of Customs violations in 2019
	Arrest of person transporting 9,800 tablets of synthetic drugs

446 heroinbricks were seizedand many people participating in the line were arrested in a major drug case by the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department - General Department of Customs and the Police Department of Drug Crime Investigation (C04) - Ministry of Public Security coordination successful breaking. Photo: Le Thu.

Cases of hundreds of kilograms of drugs in hot spots in Ho Chi Minh City

The year 2019 closed with a transnational drug "conviction" in Ho Chi Minh City, closing a year with excellent achievements of the Customs forces inthe battle against drugs.

To destroy this drug line, the General Department of Customs directed the establishment of Special Project MT619, chaired by the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department, coordinating with the Police Department to investigate drug crimes - C04 (Ministry of Public Security, with Special Case 419D). On November 3, 2019, the competent forces simultaneously organiseda successful judgment, seized 446 heroin bricks, arrested two subjects andstopped the line of drug trafficking and transportation from abroad to Vietnam and export to Taiwan (China) led by a Taiwanese group.

Back to the anti-drug story in the Ho Chi Minh City hot spot, remember at the beginning of the New Year of the Pig 2019, when spring trips with many people werestill bustling all over the country, the Customs force and the police and the authorities "opened the spring" by preparing a plan to dismantle a "terrible" drug chain across the country. It wasSpecial Case 218 LP, chaired by C04 (Ministry of Public Security), with the close cooperation of the specialised anti-drug task force of the Customs sector, directly the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department and the local customs department concerned.

With careful preparation and effective coordination, on March 20, the Specialised Committee successfully "stored" and seized 300 kg of methand related subjectsthat were Taiwanese.

Notably, in this case, the Vietnamese authorities provided information to the Philippines authorities to seize276 kg of methin the country, related to the cleared line in Ho Chi Minh City.

The leader of the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department (General Department of Customs) shared that shortly after the seizureof 300 kg of meth in Ho Chi Minh City, through the rapid exploitation of subjects, the Customs force and leaders and scouts Department C04 in the project focused on analysing, evaluating and comparing the information obtained through the arrest, search, and declaration of the subjects with information in the import and export Management Information System by the General Department of Customs. Since then, functional forces discovered that shipments shipped from Saigon port area 1 (HCMCity) exported to the Philippines showed signs of suspected drug hiding. On March 20, 2019, with a strong and proactive spirit, the Vietnamese Police and Customs agencies united and exchanged information quickly with the Philippines' forces through coordinationwith the designated focal points to catch up promptly.

Not stopping there, shortly after, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department continued to work with C04 and the close coordination of the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department, along with functional units also destroyed the great drug case much bigger, with market prices of up to hundreds of billion. These are Special Projects M918 (of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department) and 719ĐL (of C04).

Accordingly, on May 10, 2019, through suspicious information about the tenant welding reinforcement 6-axis roller of threepackaging presses at the warehouse of BinhChanh district (Ho Chi Minh City), Director of Department of Customs. HCM City Dinh Ngoc Thang - Head of Special Project M918, directed the Drug Control Team to divide into fivegroups andprepared threeflexible options to coordinate with C04 and functional organisationsreconnaissance and arresting objects and exhibits are 500 kilograms of ketamine.

"Shocking" cases on the Vietnam-Laos border

Not only in Ho Chi Minh City, the situation of drug crimes in the Vietnam-Laos border area, especially in the central region such as Ha Tinh,Nghe An, Quang Tri andQuangBinh was also very hot.

At the beginning of the year (January), Ha Tinh Customs Department, Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department coordinated with C04, Border Guard and Coast Guard arrested foursubjects in the line of transporting 120 heroin bricks through Cau Treo border gate with a sophisticated hiding mechanism in the bumper andreinforced exhaust pipes of a car.

Then, in April, Ha Tinh Customs Department worked with the functional forces of the Ministry of Public Security, the Police Department of Ha Tinh Province and the Police Department of Nghe An Province to search and arrest foursubjects transporting about 580 kg of methamphetamine and 40 heroin brickshidden in the box in Vinh City (Nghe An). Expanding the case, on April 17, the functional force seized 60 kg of meth and 60 heroin bricksat the home of the smuggler Vo Van Giap (Huong Son district, Ha Tinh).

Notably, the above incidents have in common a link between Taiwanese and Chinese drug lords colluding with domestic criminals.

Also inthe central strip, 2019 recorded excellent achievements of Quang Tri Customs. In September, the unit coordinated with functional units to destroy twocases of drug transportation from Laos through Lao Bao border gate with total seizure of about 20 kg of stone drug and thousands of synthetic drugtablets. It is worth mentioning that in these cases, Customs force effectively used scanners to detect drugs that are hidden in many objects (many African people) in rice cookers andin luggage to transport by international transport.

And the path of drugs has "reversed"

In an overall assessment of the fight against drug-related crimes in 2019, the leader of the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department - General Department of Customs saidthrough the cooperation with domestic authorities and cooperation activities. Internationally in the fight against drug crimes, the Customs sector recognized the situation of drug transportation from the "Golden Triangle" to Laos, the "Crescent" in Asia and some South American countries to take to Vietnam and transshipment to third countries has many complicated occurrences.

In this situation, grasping the direction of the Government, the Ministry of Finance, the Customs Department, directly the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department and local customs departments worked closely with the following forces: Security, Border Guards, Coast Guard and destroyed a series of transnational drug transport lines in the northern border area.

After functional forces hit hard on the northern border, it is forecasted that subjects will find ways to shift their operations into the central and southern border areas.

From the above comments, the General Department of Customs warned and directed the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department and local customs units to intensify investigation and reconnaissance to hold information about the lines and groups in the border areas. At the same time, closely coordinate with functional forces to carry out the struggle and arrest cases outside the area of ​​customs operation.

Customs soon realized the risk of abusing preferential policies, attracting investment, setting up businesses to transport means, equipment, raw materials, setting up businesses, renting warehouses andyards to serve illegally producing and transporting drugs activities from abroad into Vietnam and continuing to send them to a third country for consumption.

The methods and tricks mentioned above were quickly grasped, alerted and requested by the General Department of Customs to prevent smuggling and anti-smuggling Investigation and local Customs Departments from intensifying information gathering in key areas.

Thanks to the direction from the leaders, the efforts, dedication, overcoming the dangers and difficulties of officials and employees, the struggle against drug-related crimes of the Customs sector has made many changes and achieves many important results. The above "drug convictions" are just a few typical cases in hundreds of cases that Customs agencies participated in the struggle to destroy in 2019.