Lang Son: Poultry smuggling on the rise

	Customs determined to prevent poultry smuggling
	Lang Son strengthens prevention of poultry smuggling across border
	Control “strictly” smuggled pork and trade fraud

Chi Ma Customs and Border Guard counts smuggled poultry breeds. Photo: Vi Toan

Hot smuggling spot at Chi Ma border gate area

According to Steering Committee 389 of Lang Son province, the smuggling of poultry breeds has been on the rise both in transportation frequency and volume. The illicit cross-border trade of poultry breeds has emerged since August, 2023, starting with small volume but from the end of September, the frequency of transportation as well as the volume of poultry breeds through the area have been increasing.

The poultry breeds are mainly transported at the dark night to border communes such as Yen Khoai and Tu Mich (Loc Binh district), and then transited by motorbikes to pick-up cars at some routes to move to the inland.

According to the Steering Committee 389 of Lang Son province, the local authorities have fined over VND214 million for administrative violations; confiscated and forced destruction of 101,800 chicken/duck breeds, 8,532 kg of poultry products of all kinds (1,732 kg of chicken feet, 270 kg of frozen chicken thighs, 4,000 kg of frozen processed whole duck meat and 2,530 vacuum-packed chicken feet).

It is known that the Ai Diem border gate area (Ninh Minh district, China) opposite the Chi Ma border gate area (Loc Binh, Lang Son, Vietnam) is a large poultry producer in China. At the same time, the border line is characterized by many trails, shortcuts, border-crossings, the border area in Loc Binh district is often chosen as a transit to illegally bring poultry breeds, into Vietnam.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Duc Binh, Chief of the Chi Ma Border Gate Border Guard Station, the transport of poultry breeds is mainly conducted around midnight to dawn, making detection and seizure difficult. Faced with that situation, the unit proactively coordinated with Chi Ma Border Gate Customs Branch (Lang Son Customs Department) to strengthen closed patrol activities on the border, expand blocking at trails. Therefore, from the beginning of August 2023 to October 10, 2023, the Chi Ma Border Guard made 13 seizures, confiscated nearly 23,000 chicken and duck breeds.

Speaking to Customs Magazine, Mr. Nguyen Bao Ngoc, Director of Chi Ma Border Gate Customs Branch, said that in addition to coordinating with Border Guard, the unit also strengthens professional measures to supervise vehicles passing through the border gate area, thereby promptly discovering many smuggled poultry cages installed in containers of goods re-imported through the border gate.

Chi Ma Customs reported that, in addition to the cases of coordination with the Border Guard, from September 24 to October 10, the unit discovered four cases, confiscating nearly 4,200 smuggled poultry breeds. The transportation of smuggled poultry breeds and poultry breeds of unknown origin through the area is still being controlled by the authorities.

Focus on control

According to forecasts of anti-smuggling agency, Vietnam’s demand for poultry breeds is increasing, and the price of poultry breeds is also quite high, so smugglers are find ways to bring them into the domestic marker.

The representative of Lang Son Customs Department said that facing with complicated developments in illegal cross-border transportation of poultry, implementing the instructions of the province’s Steering Committee 389 and the General Department of Customs, Lang Son Customs Department has directed border gate customs units, Customs Enforcement Teams, especially Chi Ma Border Gate Customs Branch to strengthen patrols at points where smugglers often transport contraband goods such as Yen Khoai and Tu Mich communes (Loc Binh); Tan Thanh, Tan My (Van Lang); Bao Lam, Cao Lau, Xuat Le (Cao Loc). In particular, strengthening supervision and control of trucks carrying re-imported cargo into Vietnam to promptly detect and prevent smuggled poultry; establishing patrol teams to control the trails and areas on both sides of the border gates and expanding coordination with Border Guards to fight against poultry smuggling.

Mr. Hoang Van Chieu, Chairman of Loc Binh District People's Committee, Head of the District Steering Committee 389, said that the District Steering Committee 389 has also issued a document requesting the competent forces in the district to take all their efforts to prevent poultry breeds smuggling. Accordingly, the Border Guard and Chi Ma Customs are required to establish more control teams, increase patrols at transit, entry and exit points of smuggled goods; and the Police and Market Surveillance are required to focus on inspecting and destroying hubs of poultry and poultry breeds in the province.

According to Mr. Dang Van Ngoc, Director of the Provincial Market Surveillance Department, Standing Deputy Head of Steering Committee 389 of Lang Son province, the Provincial Steering Committee 389 has directed anti-smuggling forces to strengthen inspection and control at border lines, border gate areas, and strictly control the traffic to prevent smuggled poultry breeds.

Customs, Border Guard, and Quarantine forces are required to continue to strengthen closed border patrols, inspect border areas and border gate areas; expand controls at trails and shortcuts; arrange more officers at key points. At the same time, at the domestic route, the Police and Market Surveillance forces, in addition to strengthening traffic control, have to set up stops on national and provincial highway; continue to work with local authorities and other agencies to promote communication to border residents not to help transportation of smuggled poultry breeds and others.