Coast Guard is the main force in the fight against smuggling by sea

Nghe An Customs coordinates to seize 3kg of meth

The Coast Guard inspects violating ships. Photo: Thanh Hai

Struggle effectively

According to the Command of the Coast Guard, in the first half of 2020, due to various reasons, the situation of smuggling, trade fraud and illegal goods transport atsea was complicated, with a tendency to increase in both the number of cases and participants, with many types and fields.

The criminals often change methods and tricks to deal with law enforcement agencies. In particular, the value of smuggled goods and commercial fraud that the functional forces obtained is increasing. Withthe petroleum product alone, according to experts, it is estimated that each year, the State collects tens of trillion of dong in taxes and fees of all kinds caused by criminals smuggling petroleum products by sea.

Statistics show that, in the first half of the year, the Coast Guard inspected 421 ships and sanctioned 393 ships for administrative violations with an amount of nearly VND1 billion; arresting 40 cases of 39 ships with 205 subjects of smuggling, trade fraud, illegal transport of goods by sea; sanctioned administrative violations of nearly VND3 billion, the value of material evidence is estimated at nearly VND100 billion.

In particular, the Coast Guard has coordinated with Police, Customs and other authorities to arrest and handle four cases ofeight ships with 73 suspects; seized 1.86 million liters of gasoline RON 92, more than 650 tons of copper ore, nearly 300 tons of sugar, estimated goods worth nearly VND37 billion.

Major General Tran Van Nam, Deputy Commander of the Vietnam Coast Guard, said that the tricks of smuggling and trade fraud often tiein with transporting goods by sea. In particular, the illegal trading of petrol and oil is often concentrated in the southern exclusive economic zone, smugglers bring the goods to the mainland for sale and sell them to fishing ship owners. The transport and delivery of goods is mainly at night to avoid the detection of authorities. In particular, the suspectsoften use the revolving invoice to present when the authorities checkthe sale of petrol and oil to legalize the violated shipment. In addition, these violators often installed modern equipment on board to identify the vehicles of the functional forces near the delivery area to escape.

In particular, they often take advantage of bad weather, big waves, high winds or no patrol of the law enforcement forces at sea to gather andtransport, transfer and deliverillegal goods atsea or coastal areas, Major General Tran Van Nam said.

Strengthen enforcement at sea

According to Major General Tran Van Nam, the Covid-19 pandemicin thecountry is basically under control. However, the forecasts of the domestic and global situation of Covid-19 pandemiccontinue to be complicated and prolonged, leading to the taking advantage of the situation to make profits and violate laws such as smuggling, producing, trading fake goods, poor quality goods, and goods of unknown origin. In particular, smuggling and transporting the above-mentioned goods by sea are always at a high risk.

In order to effectively combat various types of crimes at sea, the Coast Guard has foundmany solutions. In particular, the Coast Guard force has implemented synchronous solutions to coordinate effectively with the functional forces in preventing and combating crimes of smuggling, trade fraud and illegal transportation of goods by sea. Strengthen patrol, inspection and control in key sea areas; promoting and improving the quality and effectiveness of coordination in grasping and exchanging the situation, organizing professional activities to proactively detect and promptly prevent and fight against smuggling and trade fraud and transporting illegal goods by sea.

Major General Tran Van Nam added that the Coast Guard will also continue to innovate in exchanging information on activities of criminals and violations at sea; innovating in the deployment of professional activities, in patrol, inspection and control on key routes and sea areas; innovating in organizing legalpropaganda, dissemination and education activities; exchanging experiences on prevention of smuggling crimes, commercial fraud, illegal goods transportation and in training, rehearsing and handling large and complicated smuggling cases at sea.

“Based on the Vietnam Coast Guard Law, Decree No. 61/2019 / ND-CP dated July 10, 2019 of the Government and other relevant legal documents, the Coast Guard continues to research and advise, propose the competent authorities to amend and promulgate regulations to coordinate with the forces of the concerned ministries and branches to suit the practical situation,” Major General Tran Van Nam said.