Use outdated vehicles or off-load vehicles to transport illegal sugar

	Smuggling of granulated sugar and cigarettes take place complicately in targeting routes and areas
	Stopping 14 trucks illegally carry 50 tons of sugar
	Smugglers take advantages legal loopholes for sugar smuggling and trade fraud

A warehouse containing 10 tons of smuggled sugar was discovered and handled by the Quang Tri Police, Customs and Border Guard forces in February 2023.

Sneak to bring smuggled sugar "over the border"

Talking to a reporter from Customs Magazine, Head of the Customs Control Team - Quang Tri Customs Department Le Mai Anh said that the situation of smuggling, illegal transportation of goods across the border, trading and transportation Sugar products without legal documents in customs operating areas continue to have complicated developments. Taking advantage of Quang Tri border terrain including Lao Bao international border gate area, Se Pon river border line, National Highway 9 from the border area of Lao Bao town, Huong Hoa district through Krong Klang town, there are many cross roads from Dakrong district to Dong Ha City. The objects hire border residents which are almost ethnic minorities, living close to the river, with low educational levels, no jobs, even subjects of social evils participating in smuggling and illegally transporting goods across borders.

Through the work of the Customs, Police, and Market Surveillance forces of Quang Tri province, it has been shown that sugar products originating from Thailand are quite common infringing goods. Violations that occur are mostly acts of buying, selling, and transporting imported goods without legal documents in customs operating areas. Subjects often flee when discovered in violation, so it is difficult to handle the case due to the inability to identify the violator and the owner of the goods.

From the beginning of 2023 to November 30, 2023, the Customs Control Team, Quang Tri Customs Department discovered and handled 62 cases of customs law violations related to sugar products, seizing 127.8 tons sugar of foreign origin (mainly Thailand), worth more than 1.84 billion VND.

The methods and tricks of those smuggling and illegally transporting goods have not changed but are increasingly sophisticated, aggressive, reckless, and dangerous. Smugglers mainly hire people to use improved motorized boats to transport goods along the Se Pon River (more than 10 km long), taking advantage of rainy and windy weather, darkness, complex terrain or when the authorities were not present to patrol and control to bring smuggled and prohibited goods to the Vietnamese river side and collect them in warehouses (mainly people's houses close to the border); Hire people to use carts or rickshaws to transport, or carry goods through trails and open paths to avoid inspection and control by the authorities. After being gathered along the border, goods will continue to be loaded onto means of transport such as coaches, small trucks, and vans running at high speed, without obeying the orders of the authorities to transport for domestic consumption.

Taking full advantage of residents living around the Se Pon River area, the subjects formed spontaneous wharfs, using uninspected means of transport to bring goods "across the border". The subjects loaded goods onto the boat and drove along the Se Pon River. After receiving a safety signal from the Vietnamese shore, they immediately brought the vehicle to shore and dispersed the goods. Contraband goods transported ashore are placed in temporary warehouses for hiding, mainly in discreet areas, making inspection by the authorities difficult. From temporary warehouses, the subjects used vehicles to bring goods to transit warehouses located in Dong Ha City, and even used off-load vehicles (outdated coaches, expired coaches converted into trucks) to transport smuggled sugar.

Control truck operations

To improve the effectiveness of the functional forces in fighting against illegal transportation of sugar, Mr. Nguyen Van Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Sugar Association, said that it is necessary to supplement means and tools to support the authorities. The functional forces carry out their duties to limit the shortcomings and loopholes that are being exploited by subjects to commit acts of smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods. Consider equipping functional forces with means to monitor activities at wharves and traffic roads along the Se Pon River, such as a security and order surveillance camera system integrated into the command information center or drones to support patrolling, monitoring, and field identification to identify objects and vehicles involved in smuggling and trade fraud.

The Vietnam Sugar Association also proposed that spontaneous wharves on the Se Pon River need to be strictly managed, meeting regulations on management of inland waterway activities. In addition, check the registration of off-load vehicles and take measures to handle vehicles whose technical condition has changed to transport goods. On the other hand, it is required that off-load vehicles must be equipped with trip monitoring devices according to the provisions of Article 14 of Decree 86/2014/ND-CP: "Cars for passenger transport business, cars for freight transport busines by containers, tractor-trailers, semi-trailers for transport business and cars for freight transport business must be equipped with trip monitoring devices, trip monitoring devices must ensure good technical condition and operate continuously while the vehicle is in traffic.

According to Steering Committee 389 Quang Tri, in the first 10 months of 2023, functional forces in Quang Tri province discovered and handled 1,609 cases of smuggling, commercial fraud and counterfeit goods (an increase of 9.68% compared to with the same period); total value of goods 18.79 billion VND (down 27.86% over the same period); and 1,320 violators.

Of these, functional forces on the border and along Route 9 (Quang Tri) discovered and handled nearly 300 cases, seizing 663 tons of sugar of foreign origin.