Who are behind smuggled shipments to Sai Gon Port?

	Many shipments of toys and games for children re-exported
	Prosecuting a criminal case of illegal transport of nearly 900 kgs of ivory
	Prosecute the smuggling case of more than 2 tons of ivory through Cat Lai

Dozens of containers of banned goods which were detected at Cat Lai in 2017 have not been handled. Photo: T.H

It is difficult to implement criminal prosecution

According to Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch Zone 1, in the first 6 months of 2017, the Branch detected and seized 25 containers of banned goods of 11 enterprises. However, Customs only seized smuggled goods, but the handling of these shipments is still difficult because goods owners have not been identified. As soon as these banned shipments were seized at the seaport, goods owners did not implement Customs procedures and refused to receive goods and did not go to witness goods inspection.

Particularly, enterprises pretended to “die” to refuse to receive banned goods. For example, N. Import Export Service Trading Co., Ltd imported 2 containers of goods from Japan to Cat Lai. The Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch Zone 1 and the Customs Enforcement Team suspected and supervised goods but the Company did not implement Customs procedures to receive goods. When Customs inspecting goods, it invited the Company to witness but the Company did not reply and come. As a result, Customs detected banned goods in 2 containers. A few days later, this Company sent a representative to the Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch Zone 1 to ask for implementation of transit procedures for 1 new container of import goods as same as above 2 containers.

According to the simple maritime procedures is one of the reasons making enterprises refuses their responsibility in receiving goods such as mistake or asking for re -export or adjusting receiver on the manifest. When Customs identified and gathered information or documents related to shipments for handling, some shipping lines did not cooperate. “This is the biggest difficulty for Customs in handling violations. Many serious violations with high-value goods have enough evidence for criminal prosecution, but have not been implemented because goods owners are not identified”- Mr.Vo The Hung – the leader of Customs Enforcement Team under Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch Zone 1 said.

Smuggling is not strictly handled

Not only dozens of containers of banned goods which were detected as above were difficult to handle but also even hundreds of containers of smuggled and banned goods which seized at Sai Gon Seaport have not been handled because owners have not been identified. The violations which were detected and seized to prevent smuggling to the domestic market and affecting domestic production, the handling of violations and perpetrators importing these banned shipments have been not implemented.

Hence, who are the real owners of smuggled shipments above?. According to the leader of Custom Enforcement Team under Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, after seizing banned goods, Customs went to registered addresses of Directors of enterprises and collaborated with police and local authorities to investigate but the results were zero: enterprises did not operate at registered headquarter, directors of enterprises did not reside at registered addresses or know about operation of enterprises named by them.

Prosecute a case of smuggling 619 kg of ivory via Cai Lat port VCN – Sai Gon port area 1 Customs Branch has issued Decision No. 04 / QD-HQKV1 to ...

According to the Customs Enforcement Team under Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, violators abuse newly established enterprises which do not operate at registered headquarter to use their name to open Customs declaration to import banned goods, which is carefully prepared and organized. The violators usually hire a director or use the identity cards which are picked up by other people or fake identity cards to establish enterprises. Some violators established some enterprises to smuggle and illegally transport banned goods, causing difficulty for Customs to handle the seizure of infringing goods. Currently, Ho Chi Minh City Customs is still coordinating with police agencies to seek for these owners.

From the above in fact, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department proposed to State management agencies to review provisions on enterprises establishment to well manage enterprises and prevent “bogus” enterprises taking advantages of provisions for smuggling and tax evasion. Supplementing provisions and legal basics to bind responsibility and handle enterprises and legal representatives of enterprises which violate the law.