Do not let border residents assist in smuggling

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The subject (female) illegally transporting money and foreign currency was arrested by Khanh Binh Border Gate Customs and prosecuted in June 2024.

Take advantage of policies for border residents

Recently, anti-smuggling forces have discovered many cases of people living near the border participating in transporting smuggled goods for brokers; storing smuggled goods in houses near the border area, etc assisting smugglers.

The case of smuggling more than 6 tons of gold through Chang Riec border gate (Tay Ninh) has just been tried at first instance by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court against 24 defendants. Notably, in this case, the masterminds of the smuggling took advantage of some people living in the border area to participate in transporting smuggled gold. Specifically, in this gold trafficking ring, defendant Nguyen Thi Ngoc Giau (living near Chang Riec border gate, Tay Ninh) and her son, defendant Tran Thanh Thang, participated in the role of organizing the transportation of money and gold across the border. Defendant Nguyen Thi Ngoc Giau and her group took advantage of the policy towards border residents, hiding gold under the floor of a homemade three-wheeled vehicle carrying ice to disguise the concealment of money and gold illegally transported across the border. At the first instance trial, the defendants all admitted to their crimes, but said that they committed the crimes due to their lack of education and understanding of the law (!?).

Not only assisting in smuggling, many border residents took advantage of the border crossing to illegally transport goods and foreign currency and were discovered and stopped by authorities right at the border gate. Recently, the Head of Khanh Binh Border Gate Customs Branch (An Giang Customs Department) signed a decision to prosecute a criminal case of "Illegal transportation of currency across the border" involving 2 people who were border residents illegally transporting money and foreign currency through the Khanh Binh border gate area. Previously, on April 25, 2024, Khanh Binh Border Gate Customs Sub-department coordinated with Khanh Binh Border Gate Border Control Station to carry out the task of inspection, supervision, and immigration and import-export procedures at Khanh Binh Border Gate and discovered 2 people driving a motorbike from Cambodia to Vietnam through the entry lane passing through the customs clearance area for about 10 meters but did not stop to declare and complete procedures as prescribed. After requesting to stop, the inspection team discovered nearly 280 million VND, 830 USD, and 49,000 riel hidden in the woman's handbag, which was not declared to customs as prescribed when completing entry procedures.

Also in April 2024, An Giang Police's professional units caught Nguyen Thanh Phi (born in 1976, residing in Chau Doc City, An Giang Province) driving a motorbike carrying a black nylon bag, on the way to the border (Vietnam - Cambodia), showing suspicious signs so they conducted an inspection. Through the inspection, the Working Group discovered that Phi was illegally transporting 150,000 USD.

Avoid taking advantage of policies to violate the law

According to the provisions of Decree 134/2016/ND-CP of the Vietnamese Government, border residents are Vietnamese citizens with permanent residence in border areas, people with a permit from the border provincial police agency to reside in border areas, are exempted from customs duties with a customs value of no more than 2 million VND/person/day/trip and no more than 4 trips per month. This is a policy to create conditions for border residents to go to neighboring countries to exchange and trade essential goods for life. However, many subjects have taken advantage of this preferential policy to violate the law.

According to the Steering Committee of An Giang Province 389, currently on the southwestern border, many Casino points on the Cambodian border attract a large number of people from both sides of the border to participate every day. In particular, people with permanent residence in the border area use the excuse of visiting relatives, buying and selling, exchanging goods to participate in social evils, causing difficulties for inspection and control at the border gate. The locations storing smuggled goods along the Cambodian border still maintain operations, gathering goods waiting for favorable opportunities to quickly smuggle across the border. Faced with the above situation, to control the area, the Customs forces of many southwestern border provinces have coordinated with the Border Guard forces to inspect and control at the border gates in accordance with the functions and tasks of each sector, ensuring the maintenance of stable entry and exit activities through the border gate; promptly detecting and arresting violations.

The Customs units at the border gates always focus on propaganda and dissemination of laws to the people in the border area. Recently, the Customs, Police and authorities of 4 border communes in Dong Thap have organized to disseminate and directly propagate to the people many contents about drugs and the harmful effects of drugs, methods and tricks of drug criminals, some sanctions for violations of drug laws, images of some cases of illegal transportation of drugs across the border that have been arrested recently. At the same time, they introduced regulations on carrying cash, foreign currency, gold, duty-free baggage allowance when crossing the border; regulations on border trade activities; showed video clips on the fight against drug smuggling, money, gold, foreign currency of the Customs sector; some basic contents of the Vietnam Border Law: conditions for crossing the border for trading, visiting relatives of border residents; ensuring security and order, protecting national sovereignty and border markers. Through propaganda, border residents can raise awareness, heighten vigilance and actively support functional forces in drug prevention and control; simultaneously, help border residents raise awareness of complying with legal regulations, encourage people not to cover up or assist smugglers; actively support functional forces to detect and eradicate gathering points, transit points, harboring and consuming prohibited and smuggled goods, etc.