In the upcoming Lunar New Year, the border functional forces not only concentrate on anti- illegal immigration in the context of the current complicated Covid-19 pandemic but also fight against drug-related and cargo trafficking crimes.
Border guard troops of the Lao Bao International Border Gate coordinated with the functional forces to bust cross- border cargo trafficking rings.
In particular, the border police coordinated with the Lao Bao Customs Branch seized 1,036 kilograms of firecrackers and 2,245 kilograms of wood suspected to be Dalbergia cochinchinensis inside a truck 29C-961.72 heading to Vietnam from Laos on December 10. During investigation process, the driver confessed to buying the shipments in Laos to sell Vietnamese customers for profit. This has been the largest firecracker trafficking case in term of volume in Quang Tri Province so far.
As such, the functional forces arrested four Laotians after they detected and seized 60,000 synthetic drug tablets at the Cha Lo International Border Gate in Quang Binh Province. Regarding to another case, the police arrested two Laotians and seized more than 68,000 synthetic drug tablets at the border gate.
Recently, there have been 53 violation cases with 47 drug-related cases, more than 128,000 synthetic drug tablets and nearly 300 kilograms of stone drugs and many other illegal goods were confiscated.
Previously, on November 4, the Drug Control and Crime Prevention Office of Thanh Thuy Border Gate Border Guard Station coordinated with the Thanh Thuy Border Gate Customs Branch in Nghe An Province to patrol at the border area near landmark 462 to raze illegal immigration. During the patrol, the functional force discovered and arrested a case of transporting 100 kilograms of stone drug.
On December 19, the police of Vinh City together with the border officers of Ngoc Lam Border Guard Station and Thanh Thuy Border Guard Station arrested 42-year old Hoang Van Tuan from Thanh Long Commune, Thanh Chuong District for trafficking ten heroin cakes, two kilograms of ketamine, two kilograms of stone drugs and 4,000 synthetic tablets on Highway 46 in Thuy Phong Village, Thanh Thuy Commune, Thanh Chuong District, Vinh City.
Expanding the investigation from the case, the functional forces arrested 51-year old Hoang Van Phuong from Thanh Long Commune with 1,000 synthetic drugs and a heroin cake.
On the northern border route, the cases of illegal goods shipping from neighboring countries into the provinces of Lang Son, Cao Bang, Quang Ninh, etc. has been happening at the beginning of December. The most of seized goods have been transported from China including clothes, electronics, household appliances, pharmaceuticals, cigarettes, cosmetics, alcohol, etc. Recently, the Lang Son police seized 43 bags of footwear, clothes with fake labels at a warehouse in Dinh Lap Town, Dinh Lap District.
On December 11, Market Management Team No.2 and No.7 under the Department of Market Management of Lang Son Province inspected cars No. 12C-088.10 transporting 1,050 life-jackets, men's and women's clothing, household tools and appliances smuggled from China.
On December 8, the Market Management Team No.7 in coordination with Van Lang District Police detected a 5-ton mail truck carrying thousands of smuggled products entering Lang Son Province into other provinces.
Similarly, Market Management Team No.4 and functional forces discovered a 16-seater passenger car carrying illicit clothes and 700 eye-shadow boxes and other car carrying a large volume of illicit clothes worth over VND100 million (US$4,300) one day later.
The criminals are increasingly reckless and ready to use weapons to fight back the functional forces when being detected. Typically, the smugglers crashed their vehicles directly into the functional forces, causing injury to an officer when they were inspecting a case of transporting 23,400 packages of cigarettes on the night of August 13, 2020.
Recently, the working group of the Cau Muong Border Guard Station under the Border Guard of Dong Thap Province were resisted by a motorcycle-riding suspector as the functional forces performed patrol and inspection tasks for him and detected two bags containing 500 packages of pirated cigarettes.
At the end of the year as well as in the context of the current complicated Covid-19 pandemic situation, cargo, drug-and- firecracker smuggling and illegal immigration to Vietnam are likely to increase so the functional forces at international border gates should be vigilant over and equip vehicles and tools to timely prevent and suppress extremist violators, ensure safety for people to enjoy the upcoming Tet holiday.
