Ho Chi Minh City Customs and Border Guard join hands to prevent dozens of smuggling cases

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Colonel Phan Van Duc, Commander of the Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard, presented Certificates of Merit to the coordinating units. Photo: Collected

Prosecution of a series of smuggling cases

At the conference summarizing 5 years of implementing the Coordination Regulation No. 3929/QC-BDBP-TCHQ dated September 4, 2019 between the Border Guard Command and the General Department of Customs in Ho Chi Minh City, recently organized by Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department and Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard Command, Lieutenant Colonel Trinh Hoang Hung, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard Command, said that through the inspection and control of means of transport entering and exiting the country, import and export goods through the port, through professional activities, the two units have coordinated to inspect and handle 22 cases related to smuggling and illegal transportation of goods. Of which, 33 containers containing goods with signs of violating the law (mainly illegally imported goods), 1 ship, 5 barges, with 27 organizations and individuals violating.

Among the above cases, there are many typical cases that attract attention with large value of goods. On July 2, 2020, Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard coordinated with the Saigon Port Customs Branch, Region 1 to search an imported goods container and discovered more than 6,000 unlabeled, unused, imported motorcycle components from China, not declared to customs as prescribed. The authorities fined the violating enterprise VND 180 million and confiscated all the violated exhibits.

Then, on October 28, 2020, the two units continued to search a container and discovered 90 boxes of Phuong Dong Gold raisin juice, made in Korea, not declared to customs. This violating enterprise was also fined VND 180 million and had all the exhibits confiscated.

Recently, on June 21, 2024, Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard coordinated with Saigon Port Customs Branch 3 to inspect a container of goods, discovered that the goods had additional labels on the products that did not have full information according to regulations and had intentionally delivered smuggled goods. The authorities fined this enterprise 40 million VND and confiscated 36 bottles of wine.

According to statistics, in addition to administrative handling cases, the two forces have coordinated to detect and arrest many serious violations, and have initiated criminal proceedings. Typically, on April 8, 2023, Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard coordinated with Saigon Port Customs Branch 3 to search 2 containers, discovered to be filled with used electronics and refrigeration, on the list of prohibited imports.

The case was transferred to Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard Command for prosecution, then transferred to Ho Chi Minh City Police Investigation Agency for investigation and handling according to authority.

Previously, in April 2022, at Gate B of Cat Lai Port, Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard coordinated with the Saigon Port Customs Branch, Region 1 and Group 3 - Department of Drug and Crime Prevention of the Border Guard, to inspect an imported container and discovered nearly 700 sanitary equipment of unknown origin. The case was prosecuted by the authorities.

Notably, in the past time, in the face of the complicated situation of smuggling of petroleum at sea, the Border Guard and the Customs agency have proactively coordinated to prevent many large-scale illegal transportation of petroleum. On March 18, 2023, Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard coordinated with the Southern Sea Control Squadron (Squadron 3 - Department of Anti-smuggling Investigation, General Department of Customs) to arrest a ship illegally transporting 25,000 liters of illegal gasoline.

The incident was fined 90 million VND by Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard against the ship owner and confiscated all the evidence, which was 25,000 liters of A92 gasoline.

Next, Squadron 3 presided over and coordinated with Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard, Department 3 - Economic Police Department - Ministry of Public Security to inspect 5 barges anchored in the San Cat area (District 7, HCMC), discovered and temporarily seized 571 m3 of FO oil, 100 m3 of DO oil without valid invoices and documents.

Proactively preventing drugs by sea

According to the assessment of the leaders of the two units, in order to improve the effectiveness of coordination and prevent many smuggling cases, the two forces have had many forms of exchanging and providing diverse information, such as: direct exchanges at regular meetings, exchanges in writing, by phone and patrol work, grasping the situation, etc.

Over the past 5 years, the two units have exchanged information and coordinated to verify 37 sources of information related to smuggling, trade fraud, illegal transportation of goods and many valuable information to collect and consolidate professional records to serve the plan and project.

From 2019 to present, the two units have developed and implemented 15 Plans in the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and illegal transportation of goods, along with 12 specialized plans to prevent and combat smuggling and trade fraud crimes.

However, according to the two forces, the crime situation, especially drug crimes that take advantage of imported and exported goods by sea to transport drugs, is on the rise and becoming increasingly sophisticated and complicated. Typically, in a case in 2020, the forces seized more than 40 kg of drugs hidden in the guts of construction stones being prepared for export to Korea at Cat Lai port.

Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department Nguyen Van On said that the situation of smuggling, trade fraud, and illegal transportation of drugs and precursors through port gates and sea borders is very complicated. Subjects often change their methods of operation and sophisticated concealment methods to avoid the control of functional forces. Although the two forces have detected and arrested many cases, there are still potential risks, which are difficult to predict, difficult to predict, and difficult to control. Therefore, the forces need to continue to maintain regular and proactive coordination in the new situation.

Based on this reality, Ho Chi Minh City Customs and Border Guard propose to convert and upgrade Plan No. 84/KH-BCHBDBP-HQTPHCM dated January 17, 2020 of the two forces into a coordination regulation to improve the basis for implementation and specify key issues that frequently arise during the coordination process for smooth and unified implementation. At the same time, the two forces need to increase information exchange, grasp the situation, and strictly manage subjects related to smuggling, prohibited goods, and illegal transportation of goods through port gates. In particular, share information on entry and exit, import and export, exploit and use the common surveillance camera system according to the modernization program of each sector, first of all at border gates with large volumes of ships, passengers entering and exiting, and import and export goods.