Seizing nearly half a million of foreign cigarettes and tonnes of suspected herb ingredients in Mong Cai

Cigarettes were labeled with Chinese characters in the infringing shipment

On September 23, the case was discovered and seized in the Bac Luan river mouth area of ​​Mong Cai city, Quang Ninh province.

Before that, on the evening of September 21 to the early morning of September 22, the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department and C03 discovered and seized two boats containing illegal cigarettes.

Among the boats, one contained 500 bales (equivalent to 250,000 packs) and one boat contained 450 bales (equivalent to 225,000 packs). All cigarettes on the two boats were labelled with Chinese characters. At the time of inspection, all goods have no invoices and vouchers.

Thus, the total volume of cigarettes as mentioned above is up to 475,000 packs.

"At the time when the competent force approached the scene, there was a motorboat that approached a boat transporting 450 bales of cigarettes. When detecting the force, the subjects drove the motorboat to run to China to escape," a source of Customs News said.

Then, at around 8:00 AM on September 22, the Customs and police force continued to detect and arrest three boats containing tens of tonnes of goods (about 40 to 50 tonnes) suspected as being herb ingredients.

Individuals on the three above boats claimed goods were being transported to China for consumption but they could not present invoices or documents related to the goods.

The case is being investigated and verified by the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department in coordination with C03.

Some pictures related to the shipments.