The Customs has seized 2.5 tons of transnational drugs

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Illegal materials of the case.

The whole incident was in the investigation - E316. Starting from the geographical reconnaissance and information processing analysis, in May 2016, the force of drugs prevention of Hanoi Customs Department received information that a group intended to transport huge quantities of herbs and narcotics from abroad to Vietnam through a kind of international postage to a third country.

In May 12, the Director of Hanoi Customs Department established specialized decisions and the investigation committee E316 (chaired by Hanoi Customs Department) in collaboration with Team 5 (Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department of General Department of Vietnam Customs) and Division 7 (C47 - Ministry of Public security) to combat the illegal transport of narcotics through international postage.

During the investigation process, the investigation committee E316 discussed detailed plans, assigned tasks to specific members to deploy. Many meetings were held to update, analyze and assess the situation of goods for consignment through international postal and methods of crime in illegal transportation of narcotics.

The first consignment was detected on April 15, with 36 parcels, a total weight of 545kg, the sender was from Ethiopia with 9 recipients. Results of the Institute of Criminal Sciences of the Ministry of Public Security showed that it contained Cathinone - a powerful narcotic substances in the list of forbidden drugs used in medicine and social life.

On May 12, Police Department of drugs investigation (C47) in collaboration with Hanoi Customs Department implemented “fake” customs clearances in the system of the external post offices for imports with the aim to lure criminals to receive the goods as usual.

Illegal materials of the case.

On May 23, the investigation committee E316 detected 52 parcels, weighing 494kg by the foreign-made client's behalf issuing the customs declaration X to the US, UK and Australia. The content of goods was declared as "dried tea". The sender was Pham Van Duy with the address Van Hoa - Lao Cai. The Customs Branch inspected samples, and the assessment results of the Institute of Criminal Sciences also showed the component Cathinone.

The external post-office Branch informed Branch Customs of express services courier that there was a consignment from Singapore to Vietnam with the declaration "dried herbs", with 76 parcels, weighing 1,088 kg. This consignment was imported into Vietnam and failed to present phytosanitary permits, therefore, the external post-office Branch returned to Ethiopa Then, the consignment was transported to Singapore but there was no way to Ethiopia and it returned to Vietnam to find another way to export.

On the same day, Branch Customs of express services detected re-entry consignments including 6 parcels, approximately 54 kg declared as "dried herbs." The reason for re-entering and the name, the address of the courier were unclear. Then, the inspection results were similar to the above cases.

On May 25, Branch Customs of express services seized 7 parcel, about 58,7 kg. On May 26, the authority force detected 4 parcels, about 36kg, exporting to the US. On June 30, 4 consignments to export and import in different directions, 1 consignment of about 19kg exporting to the US, an imported consignment from Kenya and another imported consignment of 9kg.

On June 2, the investigation committee continued expanding the investigation and proposed to stop customs clearance for imported shipments through Noi Bai Customs Branch with 5 packages, approximately 100kg imported from Kenya.

On June 6, the investigation committee detected 2 consignments of about 18kg exporting to the US and most recently, on June 28, 5 parcels were detected by the authority force.

Thus, up to now, the total number of consignments which were seized included 199 parcels with the total weight of about 2.5 tons of dried herbs containing narcotics.

According to Deputy Director of Hanoi Customs Department, Mr. Nguyen Truong Giang, during the investigation, the investigation committee judged it was a group illegally transporting dry herbs containing narcotic substances with complicated, organized, large and nationwide movements. They took advantage of Vietnam being a tea export country and declared with the customs authorities as dried herbs, dried moringas, dried tea to export to a third country. The masterminds were foreigners and Vietnamese senders and recipients were hired to transport in Vietnam. The criminals imported dried herbs from Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa to gather in Vietnam and then seeked to move to countries: Australia, the Netherlands, the United States by air, postal.

Based on the investigation results of illegal transportation of dried herbs containing narcotic substances, Hanoi Customs Department in collaboration with the General Department of Vietnam Customs provided information to the customs departments of the provinces and key cities such as : Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong etc to improve vigilance, active checking and control in the areas. Team 5 of Anti-smuggling and Investigation Department implemented immediate measures in key areas, checked most of the information related to the senders, recipients from abroad. In mid-May, in the HCM city, Customs detected and seized 5 consignments of 1.2 tons of dried herbs containing narcotics.

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The investigation committee is continuing to coordinate other authorities to verify the information of senders, the recipients for export-import consignments.