Tightening anti-smuggling activities over Tet 2017

	Ha Tinh Customs collaborated to seize 300kg of smuggled firecrackers
	Preventing large smuggling cases by air
	Customs actively anti-smuggling at the end of 2016

The Customs Force and Border Guard coordinated together to stop many illegal transports of fireworks. In the photo: The functional forces coordinated to handle the illegal transport of 52kg of fireworks in Mong Cai city, Quang Ninh on 09/01/2017. Photo: Minh Nguyet.

According to assessment of the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department (the General Department of Customs), smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods before, during and after Tet on the routes and areas of the country have been complicated with increasingly sophisticated methods and means and establishment of illegal transport from foreign countries to Vietnam. Most popular was still prohibited goods, goods with a high tax rate, goods requiring specialized management licenses, and goods violating food hygiene and safety affecting public health. The smuggling activities and illegal transport of drugs, foreign currency, Vietnam currency, fireworks, alcohol, beer, cigarettes, soft drinks, sugar, poultry, food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics food, supplementary food, clothing, shoes, mobile phones and toys mainly take place at the road borders.

Assessment was done on the basis that due to the high increase in the consumption of people at the end of the year, it is a good opportunity for smugglers transporting goods through the borders. Compared to the same period last year, the illegal transport of consumer goods, illicit goods and smuggled goods were forecast to be concentrated on the border routes: Vietnam - China (Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai), Vietnam – Laos (Quang Tri, Quang Binh) and the Southwest (Long An, Tay Ninh, An Giang, Dong Thap).

Before this situation, on 11th July 2016, the General Department of Customs delivered a dispatch to the control forces from the General Department level (the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department) to Customs Department level and branch level in the provinces and cities on strengthening anti-smuggling before, during and after Lunar New Year 2017. The General Department of Customs asked Customs departments in the provinces and cities to resolutely direct their subordinates, officials and civil servants to raise vigilance and take advantage of their working experiences and professional skills in order to detect and promptly handle te acts of smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods in the implementation of Customs procedures. At the same time, the Customs Departments needed to develop a patrol plan and actively cooperate with the police forces, Border Guard, Market Management, and the Coast Guard, to discover, prevent and handle violations in a timely fashion at Customs operation areas.

Specifically, the General Customs Department requested the Anti-smuggling and Investigation Department to continue to promote its role as a leading unit in this work and actively collaborate with the Border Guard and Coast Guard to patrol and control the two key areas which were the Northeast coast and Southwest coast, and strictly control the key items often transported by smugglers at sea during Tet being consumer goods, food, cigarettes, wine, beer, petrol and oil to prevent smugglers taking advantage of sea routes to transport goods into domestic consumption.

The directions of the General Department of Customs leaders were quickly implemented by the Customs control forces at all levels with detection and settlement of hundreds of violations cases. Of these, many serious transports of illicit goods and consumer goods were investigated, expanded and criminally handled by Customs forces. These results contributed to warn and limit violations arising along the entire borders.

Typically, on 30th January 2017 (i.e. the 3rd day of Tet 2017), while being on control duty at Gate B - Lao Bao special trade-economic zone, the Customs Branch at Lao Bao Trade Zone discovered one 12-seater bus which was disguised as a freight car with suspicious signs. Despite the stop signals of functional forces, the driver drove the car straight into the control barrier and drove away. Immediately, the leaders of the Customs Branch directed the control forces to quickly chase the car and concurrently contacted the traffic police station 9 - Quang Tri to stop the car. After more than 30 minutes of pursuit, the control forces controlled the car at Km 39, Highway 9 (located in Dakrong district, Quang Tri province). Here, the driver did not present documents proving the legality of goods in the car including: 2,100 bottles of Ensure Original Milks manufactured by US and 150 kgs of white refined sugar manufactured by Thailand.

Also in January, 2017, Customs Control Team No. 1 (Quang Ninh Customs Department) detected and handled 3 cases/1 perpetrator carrying 68.5 kgs of fireworks of all kinds at the border area Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh. On 9th January, 2017, at the Kaolong riverside, the border point 1367 (2), Zone 2, Ka Long Ward, the Customs Control Team 1 caught a perpetrator named Ngo Quang Nhi, born in 1992 (residing at village 9, Quynh Hung commune, Quynh Luu district, Nghe An) in the act of illicit trafficking of fireworks of all kinds from China to Vietnam. The unit completed the initial dossiers to transfer to the Quang Ninh Customs Department issuing a decision to prosecute the criminal case No. 06 / QDKT-HQQN dated 09/01/2017; and transferred the perpetrator, exhibits and dossiers to the Mong Cai City Police issuing a decision to prosecute and arrest the perpetrator Ngo Quang Nhi

Anti-smuggling from “the command center” VCN - The year of 2016 is marked a strong transformation of the General Department of Customs ...

To promote the results achieved, in the coming time, the General Department of Customs continues to strengthen its control forces in accordance with Decision No. 65/2015 / QD-TTg; proposes to invest and purchase specialized equipment to support the investigations, supervisions and control activities; and develop and finish the crime prevention projects in the finance and Customs control operational handbooks. The Customs forces actively manages the legal basis related to Customs control activities for application, guidance and training in the entire sector, deploys operational processes of decisions on measures of Customs control operations; and publicizes, trains and instructs the new points of the Criminal Procedure Code, and the Law on Organization of criminal investigation agencies newly adopted by the National Assembly to deploy and apply effectively.