Long An: Cigarette smuggling is still rising

	Amending and supplementing the Decision for establishing the National Steering Committee 389
	Detecting smuggled LED and firecrackers from China
	Handling confiscated illicit cigarettes

Cigarette trafficking in Thanh Hoa district – Long An province. Photo: Nguyen Hue.

Different places, different situations

According to Long An Customs Department, the trafficking of cigaretters has decreased in Customs control areas over recent months, especially in the months nearing Tet holiday, Customs checkpoints and Customs control units have actively carried out the plans of enforcing prevention and anti-smuggling activities around Tet holidays. So, enforcement units have prevented cases from arising since October 2016.

Outside Customs control areas, according to notes by reporters, smuggling cases have been fewer in border areas of Thanh Hoa and Duc Hue Districts in mid-December 2016. On the way of patrolling in Tan Hiep Commune, Thanh Hoa District and My Quy Tay so called border checkpoints in Duc Hue District, several scattered activities of smuggling could be seen. Some people made use of break time at noon to transport cigarettes by motorbike for delivering to nearby shops. Observing some shops in the areas bordering My Quy Tay chekpoint, smuggled cigarettes and sugar have not been spread outside the shops’ doors any longer. Small amounts of cigarettes and sugar have been still been smuggled for scattered delivery. Cigarettes have not been trafficked in a transparent manner as before. Transporters did not pack the whole packages of cigarette boxes into their bags but divided the packages into boxes and hid in their motorbikes.

Mr. Dang Quang Tuan, Head of My Quy Tay Customs branch under Long An Customs Department shared that according to functional forces’ information in the areas, smuggling activities have decreased by 70 -80% in Duc Hue so called border routes because Police, Border Defense have enforced their patrolling, controlling and settling in hot spots in the border areas. In the Customs areas controlled by the branch, no cigarette trafficking has been discovered over recent months.

Because the sources of goods are stopped at the borders, cigarette smuggling has been significantly reduced in Duc Hoa district. The routes and hot spots such as DT 825, DT 821 and Cay Xoai station, Loc Giang port which used to be busy with vehicles for smuggling cigarettes are now quieter.

Some people in charge of guarding for smugglers still appear in the areas, there is no group of motorbikes transporting smuggled cigarettes. In Vam Co Dong River and Loc Giang Port, there are not any high speed canoes for transporting cigarettes any more in the river. At the Cay Xoai station, there are no longer smugglers going around as usual.

Whereas Duc Hoa and Duc Hue districts are the two hot spots for smuggling cigarettes, cigarette trafficking activities has taken place in an increasing manner in Kien Tuong commune’s border areas. From the information source in Troi market in Cambodia’s border areas adjoining Binh Hiep international border gate, there are 4 or 5 vehicles with 16 – 25 seats transporting foreign cigarettes, and confectionery from Cambodia to deliver to certain shops in Vietnam every day. On average, each vehicle transports about 60 carton boxes of cigarettes. Some vehicles even carry from 100 – 150 carton boxes (each carton box contain 50 packages of cigarettes, equivalent to 500 small packs of cigarettes). Cigarettes are gathered here and divided into smaller packages. Then the goods are transferred through the small lanes in the border areas leading to Vietnam for immediate consumption within a day. On the occasion of a new year, smuggling activities not only occur in the time frames from 11.00 to 13.00 and from 16.00 to 17.00 as before but also in the time frame of 3.00 – 4.00 for moving goods to unregistered vehicles running to Ho Chi Minh City. A group of smugglers (driving 4 – 7 motorbikes) often go together with high speed, each motorbike carries 6 black bags (each bag contains around 30 packages) equivalent to 180 packages from Cambodia through the field of Binh Tan Commune to the highway 62 leading to Kien Tuong Commune for consumption.

Complicated developments

According to Mr. Le Nam Quoc, Deputy Director of Long An Customs Department, to deal with complicated developments of smuggling cigarettes in the last months of the year, functional forces strongly performed measures to fight against smuggling, especially in Duc Hue and Duc Hoa Districts. Thus, the trafficking of cigarettes has been significantly reduced in the areas. Nevertheless, smuggled cigarettes which are stopped in Duc Hue are driven to Kien Tuong’s border areas, so cigarette smuggling is likely to rise in these areas.

Gathering smuggled cigarettes in Troi Market in Cambodia bordering Binh Hiep International border-gate. Photo: Nguyen Hue.

As assessed by the Steering Board 389 of Long An province, the trafficking of cigarettes has had complicated developments over the past year despite some progress made. The smuggling activities have mainly taken place in Duc Hue and Duc Hoa Districts. Transporters are mainly local habitants who know well geographical situations. They form sized networks connecting border areas between Long An and Tay Ninh and between Long An and Ho Chi Minh City. In average, there are about 69 – 120 carton boxes, even 80 – 180 carton boxes smuggling through the provincial borders a day (each carton box contains 500 packs of cigarettes. Beside cigarettes smuggled via Duc Hue District’s border, there is a large amount of cigarette smuggling through the borders in Phuoc Chi Commune (Trang Bang District, Tay Ninh) and then moving in Vam Co Dong river via Loc Giang Commune and Thay Cai canal (Duc Hoa District, Long An province) into Cu Chi District, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh (Ho Chi Minh City) for consumption.

Against the background of complicated developments of smuggling, implementing directions by Long An Province’s People Committee, provinces and local units have developed and conducted the operations struggling against the smuggling and commercial fraud with strong measures: Police, Border Defense review, identify and list out the networks, gangs and smugglers to formulate special cases for struggling. In parallel, forces should be gathered to set up the stations and mobile patrolling units in several targeted areas in Duc Hoa and Duc Hue districts. Furthermore, professional measures should be taken to settle special cases, hot spots and organized networks of smuggling. At the border checkpoints, Customs forces should understand thoroughly the situation of target places, strictly manage border checkpoints and coordinate with the Border Defense Station to enforce patrolling for preventing cases from occurring in Customs control areas.

Handling confiscated illicit cigarettes VCN- Implementing the direction of the Permanent Deputy Prime Minister, Truong Hoa Binh on handling confiscated illicit ...

Since the beginning of 2016, Long An‘s functional forces have detected and seized around 2.5 million imported cigarette packs. Typically, on November 8^th, a task force of Market Management Team No. 1 discovered and caught 3,100 packs of imported cigarettes in Binh Hoa Nam Commune, Duc Hue District. On November 6^th, Long An’s Market Management Team No. 1 deployed in Binh Hoa Nam Commune, Duc Hue District bordering Thanh Hoa Commune, Ben Luc District in a secret manner to seize 4,810 packs of various cigarettes; on November 2^nd, the anti-smuggling unit under Duc Hoa District’s Police caught a person living in Ho Chi Minh city. The person drove a car to transport 11,400 packs of illegally imported cigarettes. Currently, the case is investigating for settlement as regulated.