Smuggling and illegal transportation of petroleum at sea has not "cooled down"

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High Command of Coast Guard Region 4 arrested an oil smuggling ship carrying 45,000 liters of oil DO. Photo: Pham Tuan

Be aggressive and sophisticated

According to the High Command of the Coast Guard, the methods and tricks of the smugglers are increasingly sophisticated and constantly changing, making the struggle of the functional forces difficult.

From the cases that have been handled, it can be seen that the amount of evidence and the value of goods is up to many billions of dong, so the subjects often find ways to hide. When buying and selling petroleum at sea, the objects are connected to deliver goods and money through intermediaries, operating in a closed manner. The delivery and receipt of gasoline and oil take place at sea, but the money delivery and receipt process takes place on land; the recipients are other locals and only communicate by phone with a "junk" sim card, so it is difficult to identify the dealer, prove the smuggling factor and handle from the root.

Since the beginning of the year, a series of cases of detecting and arresting illegal transportation of petroleum at sea have shown that petroleum smuggling activities have not shown signs of "cooling down". Typically, on March 19, in the sea about 150 nautical miles southeast of Con Dao (coordinates 07 degrees 28N - 108 degrees 40E), High Command of Coast Guard Region 3 discovered the ship TG 94456 TS was transporting 60,000 liters of DO oil without legal documents. Most recently, on July 18, the High Command of Coast Guard Region 4 discovered, inspected, and arrested the ship BTh-95055 TS, which was transporting about 250,000 liters of illegal DO oil.

In particular, in the process of patrolling in the southwest sea, about 3.5 nautical miles from the northern edge of the overlapping area between Vietnam and Malaysia, the Coast Guard ship 4035 discovered a fishing vessel with many suspicious signs. Immediately, the working group signaled to stop the train to check the itinerary. However, when the fishing boat KG 94793 TS was discovered by the Coast Guard, they quickly covered up the last 2 digits of the number. The cruise monitoring device on the Coast Guard ship also did not recognize the signal of the fishing vessel KG 94793 TS. Despite repeatedly asking the ship's owner to turn off the engine to release the drift to conduct an inspection, this ship still increased the throttle to flee, even when the Coast Guard ship approached, the crew members also used many weapons such as sticks, knives and machetes to attack the functional forces.

This is just one of many confrontational situations that law enforcement faces at sea. The value of smuggled petroleum products is very large, usually from a few hundred million dong to billions of dong per trip. High profits make subjects find all tricks to buy, sell, and transport illegally.

A typical example of sophisticated tricks is the ship with the number TG 92008 TS carrying 100,000 liters of illegal DO oil, which was arrested on March 26 by the High Command of the Coast Guard Region 4, at the sea it coordinates 09 degrees 09 minutes 00 seconds North latitude - 105 degrees 46 minutes 00 seconds East longitude, about 2 nautical miles from the Vietnam - Malaysia demarcation line led by Tran Van Thuan (born in 1976, living in Tan Thanh commune, An Minh district, Kien Giang province) as the captain. At first glance, the TG 92008 TS looks exactly like a fishing boat. However, the ship did not have any fishing gear, instead, there were suction pipes, pump cylinders, and tanks filled with DO oil. In addition to the oil suction pumping equipment hidden in the compartment, the owner of this ship is also equipped with a high-capacity submersible pump for quick and easy purchase.

Talking about the tricks of illegal DO petrol smugglers, a representative of the High Command of Coast Guard said that when receiving gasoline from unknown ships at sea, the subjects often took advantage of the night time, turned off all equipment to monitor the ship's activities, which according to regulations these means must have. When detected, they resolutely fled, many subjects cut their noses in the running process, even crashing into the ships of law enforcement. In addition, the subjects also used many other tricks such as rotating invoices and documents, using invalid invoices, especially some ships also redrawing the number according to the specifications of foreign ships, or using modern ship supervision equipment of the competent forces to easily hide.

Actively fighting

The High Command of Coast Guard forecasts that activities of various types of crimes and law violations at sea will increase, concentrating in the coastal areas of Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City, Tien Giang, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Kien Giang, etc.

Facing that situation, Major General Vu Trung Kien, Deputy Commander of the Law Department of the Coast Guard High Command, said that in the Southwest Sea, petroleum smuggling is always a painful topic, especially when the price of petrol is high. In order to deal with the tricks of the subjects, the Coast Guard has increased its forces and means to patrol and control the sea day and night. The ship is equipped with modern maritime radars operating in all weather conditions with a wide field of vision to track targets.

In addition, the High Command has requested all forces in the whole army to organize the synchronous deployment of professional measures to grasp the area, closely monitor the situation, firmly grasp the operation methods and tricks of objects and organizations involved in smuggling, commercial fraud, illegal transportation of gasoline, oil, tobacco, minerals, etc. Strengthening forces and means of key regions and key areas, focusing on the Northeast, North Central, Southeast, and Southwest sea areas and related areas; promptly detect and arrest vessels and violators.

In the coming time, according to Major General Vu Trung Kien, the Coast Guard will continue to strengthen propaganda and mobilize the masses to participate in the fight and denounce crimes; actively coordinate and synergize with relevant forces, especially Border Guard, Police, and Customs to organize special projects, combining patrolling and public control with confidential reconnaissance forces on sea routes.