Employees from Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 Market Management Office on March 6 discovered two buses carrying around 7,000 packs of smuggled cigarettes.
Smuggled cigarettes are discovered in a bus. (Filed photo)
Inspectors said the buses, traveling on the Long An-Cho Lon (Big Market) route through the city, were also found to contain hidden compartments intended for smuggling other illicit goods.
The secret compartments were concealed by metal plates, making it difficult to detect them, said an official.
The bus drivers said the illegal cigarettes had been smuggled into Vietnam from Cambodia. The goods were to be transported to HCMC’s Hoc Lac Market in District 5 before being distributed throughout the city.
According to Ngo Van Tung from the Market Management Office, all of the seized cigarettes will be discarded.
