Hai Phong: Customs - Police fight against prohibited goods

	Fireworks still “cross the border” illegally
	125 containers of prohibited import seized
	2 tons of smuggled ivory at Cat Lai port were African ivory

The violated passenger car was seized.

They are also typical cases for a close coordination between the Customs force and the Police force in Hai Phong City.

Passenger cars reformed in structure

In the last days of the year, passenger cars from Hai Phong City to Mong Cai City (Quang Ninh) have been more crowded. In particular, functional forces in Hai Phong paid much attention to a passenger car with the plate number BKS: 14B-018.19. According to reconnaissance, it was likely that this vehicle transported illicit goods from Mong Cai to Hai Phong. On 5^th December 2016, when the vehicle entered the territory of Hai Phong, the Customs force and the Police force stopped it and conducted physical inspections. Although there were many experienced Police and Customs forces, they did not discover any clues of prohibited goods after hours of searching. Then, the functional forces guessed that this passenger car was reformed in structure to contain prohibited goods.

"After that, the functional forces decided to move the passenger car to a station of container scanning of the Hai Phong Customs Department to scan", the team leader of the Hai Phong Customs Control said. With a modern scanning system, all things hidden inside steel layers with tens of cm were detected. With the indisputable images, the vehicle owner had to open all hidden spaces in the passenger car. Then, the functional forces detected and seized 2,850 wristwatches, 640 watch straps, 230 laptops, 120 high-end toys. At the time of seizure, the vehicle owner did not have any valid papers.

Earlier, at the beginning of 2016, the Customs force and the Police force in Hai Phong City also used the container scanning system to detect more than 400 mobile phones with similar tricks.

The 2 cases mentioned above are typical cases for close coordination between the Hai Phong Customs Department and the Hai Phong Police in the fight against smuggling and illegal transportation of goods in the province.

Proactive in all fields

According to the Hai Phong Customs Department, Hai Phong is the largest gateway in the North of Vietnam and the centre with many key roads, which is at a high risk of smuggling and transportation of prohibited goods from Africa, Central Asia, Eastern Europe (the areas with Vietnamese citizens living); Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia (the transshipment location in the region) and also from the border areas of China. The violated goods have been also very various, including prohibited goods, consumer goods, conditional exported and imported goods, and counterfeit goods violating intellectual property.

The wristwatches were hidden in confidential spaces.

In the complicated context with a great number of perpetrators, in order to fight against smuggling effectively, the Hai Phong Customs Department has focused on coordination with functional forces in the province, especially the Hai Phong Police. In the operational area of ​​ Customs, the Customs force will actively preside over the fight against smuggling and collaborate with relevant units to investigative and conduct physical inspections.

In geographical areas outside Customs operations, the Customs force shall actively collaborate with relevant forces to investigate and destroy cases related to contraband goods and illegal transportation of goods across the borders with the use of modern means such as the container scanning system.

According to the Hai Phong Customs Department, close coordination with the Police will help the functional forces to better understand tricks, methods, tactics and criminal acts of crime to fight effectively. Thus, Customs can detect loopholes and shortcomings in Customs management in a timely fashion in order to amend and supplement properly. On the other hand, the Customs and Police forces will have the chance to share experience in combating and dealing with cases of violation.

Checked inventory, detected prohibited goods VCN- According to the inspection team of the General Department of Ho Chi Minh City Customs, through ...

Notably, in the process of coordination, the Customs force and the Police force in Hai Phong Province have also received information and coordinated with the operational forces of the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the General Police Department (under the Ministry of Public Security) in the fight and handling of violated cases in the province.