Illegally transporting gold and foreign currency worth nearly VND3 billion in Lao Bao

The entire amount of gold, silver and foreign currency is the evidence of the case.

On September 22, 2022, according to the Lao Bao Customs Branch (Quang Tri Customs Department), on November 11, 2021, the Branch carried out procedures for re-entry registration of vehicles from Laos returned to Vietnam with license plate No. 75H-001.32. Nguyen Huu Chien drove it.

At the inspection area for the entry vehicle, the Branch inspected and discovered that, at the storage compartment on the ceiling of the truck cabin, there were two box-shaped packages with dimensions of 29x15x10 cm; 18x13x9 cm wrapped in white plastic with the words "Da Nang" and the line number "0772331331". It was not carried out customs declaration procedures as prescribed.

Right after that, the customs officer of Lao Bao Border Gate Customs Branch asked Nguyen Huu Chien to put the above two packages of goods into the baggage scanning machine.

Through image analysis, the Lao Bao Customs force discovered inside two packages containing 24 pieces of white metal (suspected to be silver); 56 light pink metal rings (suspected to be gold); 65 white metal rings (suspected to be gold); 1 yellow metal bar (suspected to be gold); 51 yellow metal threads (suspected to be gold) and 100 banknotes of foreign currency (suspected to be USD).

During the investigation and verification process, the Lao Bao Border Gate Customs Branch identified that the case involved many subjects residing in different localities.

Notably, the unit identified Vo Thi Ngoc (resident at 234 Ong Ich Khiem, Da Nang City) as the ringleader in the case.

According to the assessment results of the Criminal Science Sub-Institute - Ministry of Public Security, the above goods are 1,736.14 grams of gold; 2,180.41 grams of silver and US$100 in cash, with a denomination, was 100 USD, with a total value of more than VND 2.9 billion.

Determining the case with criminal signs, the Lao Bao border gate Customs Branch issued Decision No. 427 to prosecute the criminal case of "Illegal transportation of goods and currency across the border". They transferred the file to the investigation police agency of Huong Hoa district, Quang Tri province, for further investigation and handling following the regulations.

On September 16, 2022, the Investigation Police Agency of Huong Hoa District Police, Quang Tri, prosecuted the accused and detained Vo Thi Ngoc (currently living in Vientiane, Laos) as the ringleader of the criminal case "Illegal transportation of goods and currency across the border".