Coal smuggling still “hot” in the sea area of Quang Ninh

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According to the Steering Committee 389 of QuangNinh, the perpetrators often take advantage of night, using high-powered vehicles to transport prohibited goods from the area of the Truc Son and Van My port in China to the area of the Delimitation Road on the Gulf of Tonkin, or the area of offshore seas, after that, they split, divide into smaller shipments to bring to fishing vessels and small vessels, and continue to carry further inland for consumption, or use the fishing means with small tonnage to wriggle and dodge through the canals, islands, mountains to transport smuggled goods. Not only do they find anyways possible to consume smuggled goods smoothly, some perpetrators also organize to export illegally some key commodities such as coal and ore. This group typically uses high-capacity ships and domestic transport invoices and documents when passing by the border areas, and if given the opportunity, they immediately divert to smuggle to China.

In fact, coal-related violations have incurred complications because the industries and the functional forces have implemented drastic measures for preventing, deterring, fighting and, handling. However, illegal mining activities also pose a risk in some areas such as Cao Xanh, Ha Khanh, Ha Tu (Halong) area, the adjacent areas of Company Vietmindo in Tan Dan commune, Bang Ca (Hoanh Bo) in Yen Thuong commune, Phuong Dong ward (Uong Bi), Trang Luong commune, Hoang Que, Hong Thai Dong (North East).

Notably, Article 227 of the Criminal Code amended and supplemented in 2015 (effective from July 1st, 2016) defines that the illegal exploitation of natural resources shall be prosecuted for criminal liability when these acts collect illicit profits from VND100 million to VND500 million, or the exploited minerals are valued at 500 million VND and below 1 billion VND, or cause injury, damage to health from 31% to 60%.

Just in the first 6 months of 2016, the functional forces in the province of Quang Ninh have discovered and handled 77 violations involving illegal coal mining, processing, transport and consumption, seized more than 6,500 tons of coal of all types. In particular, functional forces prosecuted 2 cases, with 15 stakeholders. Typically, in the sea area of Ha Mai ,Van Don, the Economic Police Department (Provincial Police in Quang Ninh) coordinated with the mobile police forces to detect and arrest HP-3088 a ship which Bui Van Hien was captain, born in 1977, residing in Lu An, Thuy Nguyen, Hai Phong and 7 sailors transporting 4,000 tons of coal worth VND 3.97 billion for consumption in China. In the investigation agency, Captain Bui Van Hien and 7 people onboard (residing in HaiPhong) claimed that this amount of coal had been transported from the coal yard of Gia Minh commune (Thuy Nguyen, Haiphong) to China for consumption. The captain and the entire crew on board did not have identification documents and professional certificates. The incident has been investigated by the police agency, prosecuted by the QuangNinh police, 7 defendants were prosecuted for illegal transportation of goods across the border under Article 154 of the Criminal Code.

The Steering Committee 389 of QuangNinh said that the activities of smuggling, counterfeiting and commercial fraud significantly affected production and business, and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Exploitation, processing, transporting and consumption of illegal coal still takes place on a small scale and evolves with sophisticated methods and tricks, there is a close connection between domestic and foreign perpetrators, in the border regions and the hinterland.

Therefore, in the last months of 2016, the forces in the province will continue to grasp thoroughly and implement strictly Resolution No. 12-NQ / TU of the Provincial Party Committee on strengthening the leadership of the Working Party for management, exploitation, transportation and trading of coal in the provincial areas; the direction documents of the provincial Party Committee and the provincial People's Committee relating to coal products; Plan No. 03 / KH-PSC 389; Plan No. 01 / KH-PSC 389 of the National Steering Committee 389 … In particular, the members affiliated with the Quang Ninh Steering Committee 389 focused on identifying the key areas, key products, key objects and fully implemented synchronously specialist measures. At the same time, they established and dealt with the specialist cases of smuggling and fraud for the commodity groups: Banned goods (including drugs, weapons, support tools, explosives, fireworks; reactionary and depraved cultural products, wild animals and plants, wildlife, wood, handicraft wooden products, coal, mineral ...