Long An: facing difficulties in dealing with cigarette smuggling

	Cigarette smuggling is still problem on the Quang Tri border
	Cigarette smuggling in the Northeast Sea
	Cigarette smuggling in Long An is increasing

Market Surveillance Force of Long An province seizedsmuggled cigarettes.

Complicated developments

Steering Committee 389 of Long An province has pointed out the modes of operation such as transporters, carriers, or use goods transporting vehicles (foreign cigarettes) across the border, gathering some and then using a car (from four to seven seats) for transportation and consumption in neighboring provinces. These suspects are active mainly at night from 9pm to 2am.

According to Steering Committee 389 of Long An province, in September 2020, the provincial authorities seized more than 617,000 packages of smuggled imported cigarettes, bringing the total number of smuggled cigarettes captured by the forces since the beginning of the year to nearly 1.8 million packages.

Typically, in the third quarter, Long An Market Surveillance force discovered 79 cases of transporting and trading smuggled cigarettes and temporarily seized 23,912 packages of foreign cigarettes. In nine months, 43,488 packs of smuggled imported cigarettes were discovered and seized.

In addition, the market surveillance force discovered 43 cases of violations on trading smuggled cigarettes at fixed trading points, fined over VND129 million, confiscated over 1.2 million packages of foreign cigarettes.

At 00:30 on June 21, in the area of ​​Binh Phong Thanh town, MocHoa district, the Market SurveillanceTeam No. 2 detected a person driving a car from the Cambodian border. When detecting functional forces, the suspects stopped the car and ran away. Checking the vehicle, the functional forces found 6,500 packs of Hero and Jet branded cigarettes. The case was transferred to the MocHoa district police office by the Market Surveillance Team No. 2 for criminal prosecution in accordance with the law. Also, taking advantage of the night to transport smuggled cigarettes, at 23:00 on July 5, through inspection in the area of ​​ward 6, Tan An city, Market Surveillance Team No. 3 discovered 5,700 packs of smuggled cigarettes.

Facing many difficulties in control and handling

Through close coordination between the functional forces of Long An province, in the prevention of smuggling across the border, they seized tobacco and other products, strictly controlling close to the area. However, according to Steering Committee 389 of Long An province, they are facing many difficulties and problems in the control and handling of cigarette smuggling.

Specifically, according to the current status of the border between Vietnam and Cambodia, some cigarette smugglers have transported tobacco from Cambodia to Vietnam, despite the My QuyTay station with up to seven posts with hundreds of Border Guard officers on duty all the time since the Covid-19 pandemic started.

Therefore, smuggled cigarettes are brought into Vietnam, because this side is blocked, they run to the other side. The trick to take advantage of the dark night to transport smuggled cigarettes into Vietnam is not new.However, with so many posts on the border forces set up along the border line, the suspects still dare to transport them, showing profits from pirated cigarettes are huge.

On the other hand, the police unit prosecuted and investigated many cases of transporting illegal cigarettes, suspended the investigation from 2019 because the accused had not been identified. In which, the amount of temporarily seized material evidence is over one million packs of smuggled cigarettes.

However, because there are no documents guiding the handling of material evidence in the case of suspending the investigation. Therefore, the inventory of cigarettes has not been destroyed.

According to the regulations, smuggled cigarettes are banned goods with unidentified value. Under the provisions of Decree 97/2017/ND-CP, the case must be transferred to the person with the highest sanctioning competence to make a decision to handle confiscation.

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With the above provisions, in recent times, in the province of Long An, the handling of dossiers and cases of smuggling, transportation and trading of smuggled cigarettes has caused an overload of competent authorities in handling like the Chairman of the People's Committee of the province or district.