Smuggled sugar still “crosses the river” in the Southwest border
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Material evidence and vehicles seized from a sugar smuggling case cracked by Long An Customs Control Team in collaboration with Market management forces in August. Photo: D.N. |
Transformed sugar smuggling in An Giang Province
The border of An Phu district, An Giang Province is still the smuggling hub for sugarin the Southwest border area and until now sugar hasbeen transported illegally from warehouses across the border through Binh Di River to Vietnamese inland. According to the Steering Committee against smuggling, commercial fraud and counterfeiting (Steering Committee 389of An Giang province), sincelarge scale smuggling cases such as the “Ty duong” case were cracked, smugglershave narrowed their operations in order to assess the situation, but then they have continued to extend activities with more sophisticated tricks, especially since the beginning of August. With various methods such assecret operation, using the vouchersand invoiceslegalizing smuggled sugar, smugglershsvealso processed sugar into rock sugar or liquefied sugar for transport to make it difficult for anti-smuggling forces.
Material evidence and vehicles seized from a sugar smuggling case cracked by Long An Customs Control Team in collaboration with Market management forces in August.
The most notorious smuggling case was Nguyen Thi Kim Hanh(also known as Muoi Tuong) arrested by Police forces with hundreds of tons of granulated sugar, rock sugar and liquid sugar. The case was cracked on the August 10th2016, when Police forcesattacked a warehouse in Group 8, Thanh Phu village, Khanh An Commune, An Phu district’s border, An Giang Province and caught in the act of sugar smuggling, and taking persons into custody with 585 unlabeled sugar sacks (50kgs/sack). After quick examination,the police forces continued to arrest 3 more trucks transporting 600 sugarsacks shippedfromthe warehouse. Through quick examination, the subjects claimed that the goods was all packed Thai sugar without labels in Cambodia, then shipped to Vietnam through the border. At that night, the investigation group examined two othersugar warehouses in Da Phuoc commune, An Phu district, and seized 555 unlabeled sugarsacks. A total of nearly 30 tons of sugarthought to besmuggled goods was seized in order to clarify. Then, the investigating police agency and An Giang police decided to lay criminal prosecutionsand arrestsand gave the order to arrest Nguyen Van Lung, 31, who resides in An Phu district, An Giang province; Sal Son Vik, 25 years and Sarol Sessions, 23 years residing in Kandal province, Kingdom of Cambodia in order to continue investigating the acts of "illegal transportation of goods across the border." But the“female boss”is still "hidden".
In August, the functional forces of An Giang Province seized about 150 tons of smuggled sugar, an increaseby 2.6 times compared to July and 3.9 times compared to the same period in 2015. In addition, the functional forces also seized 17,200 kg of rock sugar and 84,000 kg of liquid sugar.
Various tricks in bordering areas
In the first 8 months of 2016, functional forces have confiscsted nearly 600 tons of smuggledsugar across the border. Illegal transportation of sugar across the border of Long An has fluctuated with complicated developments. There are not only scattered smuggling cases but also smugglersusing truckstransporting the goods for domestic consumption.
Inthe afternoon of August 22nd2016, The Customs Control Team, Customs Department of Long An Province collaborated with Team 2, Long An Market Management Department andarrested two trucks transporting 8 tons of smuggled sugar fromCambodia to Vietnam.This is the outcome of a long-time secret observation.Until3:30pm on August 22nd,2016 the combined force discovered two trucks with suspicious movement driving from the Vinh Hung border towards KienTuong town, so they stopped the vehiclefor inspection. The sugar was transported on the road from the border between Cambodia and Vinh Hung through Channel Road 79 of Tan Hung districts toHighway No.62 of Ho Chi Minh City for consumption. Earlier, also on the same highway in Tan Lap Commune, Moc Hoa District, Economic Police Department –Long An Police stopped a truck havingregistration plates 63K– 1572 driven by Doan Quoc Tam, born in 1986, residingin Vinh Binh commune, Vinh Hung for shipping 290 sugar sacks (50 kgs/sack) made in a foreign country without invoices or documents proving the origin. The case is still under investigation.
Previously, smugglers at the border have preferred tpo smugglecigarettes, wine, and electrical goods, but in 2 years recently, massive amounts of Thai sugar has been smuggled through this route due to its high profit. It is predicted that smuggling will increase sharply due to the demand for confectionery production by the end of this year. The leader rarely shows up, even when the smuggling network is arrested. The driver works under "assignment" of the leader because when drivers successfully transport the sugar, they will be paid about 100,000 VND per ton.
In case of seizure of 30 tons of sugar arrested by Ho Chi Minh Market Management Department and Police forces,smuggled sugar was caught in a company at National Highway 1A, An Lac Ward, Binh Tan District, HCM City, and related suspectsconfessed this amount of smuggled sugar,produced by Thailand, packed in 50kgs sacks, sold at 530,000 VND per sack, while similar refined sugars of Vietnam sellat about 700,000 VND/sack. A considerate price gap makingsugar smuggling continue to increase along with demand for sugar.
Mr. Nguyen Hai, GeneralSecretary of Vietnam Sugar Association said "If the price gap between the domestic and smuggled sugar still exists, smuggling will still happen. Anti-smugglingrecenttime showed that where strong measuresare implemented, smuggling networksare cracked down, resulted in smuggling reduction. At the end of this year, I hope that the functional force will strengthen the fight against smuggling, “attack”to the right smuggling network in order to minimise smuggled sugar across the border".
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