Quang Tri Customs: active anti-smuggling activities from the border

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Officers of the Quang Tri Customs Control Team check smuggled cigarettes: Photo: HuuLinh

Quang Tri has a border length of 206 km with 2 international border gates: Lao Bao and La Lay and 3 sub-border gates (Thanh, Cheng and Ta Rung) – with many trails located near the residential areas of border residents, creating favorable conditions for smugglers.

The smuggling “hot spot” in the province is still the Sepon river route running along from Lao Bao international border gate to the end of Tan Thanh commune (HuongHoa district, Quang Tri) 10km in length, there are many local unofficial wharfs. Moving toward the inland about 25km, the contiguous boundary between the Lao Bao Special Economic Zone and the Highway 9 is also known as a "hot spot" of these activities.

Understanding the law of operation of the smugglers, in recent years, the leaders of Quang Tri Customs Department have always identified that the anti- smuggling and anti- illegal trafficking of goods in the province have been a key task and enhanced forces to fight against these activities. The Quang Tri Customs force has arranged the forces at the hot spots and barricades along the border such as the Quang Tri Customs Control Team headquartered adjacent to Highway 9 on the East-West Economic Corridor. Not only establishing barricades on this arterial route, the Customs control force has been divided into several groups controlling the Gate B backstage, Lao Bao Special Economic Zone and Sepon river route. More specifically, the Customs Branch at Lao Bao border gate, the Customs Branch at Lao Bao Special Economic Zone and 2 teams: Customs Control team and Anti-Drug team have been mobilized flexibly in any situation.

Thanks to this flexibility, the number of smuggling cases detected by the Customs Control Force has been at high rate, ranging from 750 - 1,000 cases per year and the value of illicit goods seized has been estimated at 10 billion vnd per year. Due to drastic settlement of the forces in the province, the number of smuggling cases and value of illicit goods has declined in Quang Tri in recent years. In 2014 Quang Tri Customs collaborated and discovered 1,683 cases, and seized illicit goods worth an estimate of nearly 17 billion vnd. Entering 2015, the number of violations cases decreased to 922 cases, down by 45.2%; the value of illicit goods worth more than 9 billion vnd, down by 47.05% compared to 2014.

Through complicated cases, Quang Tri Customs always held seminars to get experiences and find solutions and lessons. When fighting and arresting desperate smugglers, from the leaders at the Department level to officers and staff under the Custom Control Force always were determined to master the situation and often remained from 30-40 officers, civil servants joining in to implement the Customs control tasks. Therefore, the transfer of control measures was implemented methodically, professionally and closely with the current situation. For example collecting information, making risk management dossiers for people and vehicles frequently travelling; arranging managing officers under key areas and display maximum internal human resources.

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According to the annual and monthly period, the Quang Tri Customs focus on launching peak emulation periods; assigning emulating criteria to each unit, each officer and civil servant, and concurrently encouraging the collective or individual with high achievements in the task. At the same time, the unit also actively cooperates with the forces, especially the police force, border guard to create the power to fight, arrest and handle complicated and dangerous cases, and deter and suppress crimes.