Nine noticeable cases of smuggling and transporting banned goods in June

Red lory parrot (Eos bornea) was seized at Noi Bai Airport due to transported illegally. Photo: N.Linh

According to General Department of Vietnam Customs, illegal trading and illegal transport have taken place on all border routes, border gates, seaports, international airports and international post offices.

Domestic and foreign smuggling criminals closely link together to form criminal lines and organisations; operating with the increasingly sophisticated nature, methods and tricks; equipped with many modern communication facilities, transporting goods by many different means of transport and operating irregularly to avoid the detection of competent forces.

Only in the first six months, the Customs sector detected, arrested and handled 8,933 cases of violation in the customs field, increasing by 13.38 percent over the same period in 2018. The amount of money paid into State budget was 157.3 billion VND, an increase of 36.18 percent.

Particularly in June, the General Department of Vietnam Customs "listed" nine cases of smuggling and transporting prohibited goods that were discovered and destroyed.

On June 5, the Police Criminal investigation Department - PC04 (Dien Bien Provincial Police Department) in coordination with the Anti-Drug Enforcement Unit (Dien Bien Customs Department) found one person buying and selling illegally narcotics. The competent forces seized one brick of heroin.

On June 5, at the luggage scanning machine and the import channel (Cau Treo Customs Branch, Ha Tinh Customs Department) and Ha Tinh Border Defense detected one drug transporter. The seized exhibits were 40,000 tablets of ecstasy.

Also on June 5, Moc Bai Customs Branch (Tay Ninh Customs Department) worked with Moc Bai Border Station to discover two people that transported banned goods to the tune of 2,600 packages of foreign cigarettes

On the same day, the Southern Customs Marine Enforcement Fleet (Fleet 3, Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department) cooperated with the Customs Enforcement Unit (Ba Ria-Vung Tau Customs Department) to discover one iron boat without a license plate. It transported illegal 13,042 litres of DO oil without legal invoices and vouchers.

On June 6, Fleet 3 continued detecting and seizing a Dong Thanh ship that transported 26,400 tonnes of coal from abroad into Vietnam with sign of law violation, the value of infringing goods was estimated at 65.2 billion VND.

On June 7, Lao Bao Border Guard Station coordinated with Lao Bao Customs Branch (Quang Tri Customs Department) to discover one person transporting prohibited goods. The exhibit was a sport gun (CZ457).

On 11/6, Integrated Control Station Km15- Dan Tien Pier (Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh) inspected and detected a person with illegal acts of hiding weapons and drugs. The exhibits were included: 48 bullets; a 11cm silver metal gun; two plastic bags with white crystals and one bag of liquid suspected narcotics.

On June 14, Anti-Drug Enforcement Unit (Ha Tinh Department of Customs) and Ha Tinh Provincial Police worked with Cau Treo Customs Branch and Police of Huong Son District (Ha Tinh province) to detect a person who committed acts of illegal transportation and storage of narcotics. The violated exhibits included 10,000 tablets of ecstasy and 1 kg of meth.

On June 17, Noi Bai International Airport Customs Branch (Hanoi Customs Department) cooperated with the Environmental Police Department to detect 322 individuals of red lory parrot (Eos bornea) belonging to Appendix II of Convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora (CITES).