HCM City Customs discovers hundreds of boxes of smuggled goods disguised as blood cockles

Many items of bird's nest, seahorse... fail to make customs declaration. Photo: T.H

On October 6, the Customs Enforcement Team (HCM City Customs Department) coordinated with the Saigon port area 1 Customs Branch to inspect imported goods and discovered a large number of smuggled goods.

The above shipment was imported by Vietseatrust Food Import-Export Trading Company Limited (Thu Duc City, HCM City).

On the declaration, this business declared import of more than 21 tonnes of frozen whole blood cockles, worth over VND2 billion, originating from Indonesia. The consignment arrived at Cat Lai port from the end of September 2021, classified in yellow channel – inspecting customs dossiers.

Imported blood cockle container. Photo: T.H

Detecting that the shipment showed suspicious signs of incorrect customs declaration, the Customs Enforcement Team coordinated with the Saigon port area 1 Customs Branch to stop clearance procedure and conduct physical inspection of the shipment.

The inspection results showed that besides the number of imported blood cockles as declared in the customs declaration, the Customs authority also discovered that inside the container was hundreds of cartons of goods, without customs declaration, such as: swallow bird nest, dried seahorses, dried snouted pipefish, some bones, animal horns, auto parts, motorcycles of all kinds.

Currently, the competent forces of HCM City Customs Department are continuing to check these smuggled goods. Customs News will continue to inform readers about this case.