Smuggling peaks for the festive season

The end of the year is seeing a sharp rise in smuggling activities, according to border authorities.

Electronics, household appliances, cosmetics, sugar, low-quality poultry and even fire-crackers are the main products being transported into the country illegally.

Beginning in early December, authorities in the northern provinces of Lang Son, Quang Ninh and Ha Giang began deploying forces to restrict smuggling activities.

However, despite efforts, smuggled goods are still flooding in from all border towns.

Goods are being transported through hundreds of border paths as well as thousands of boats on sea.

“We do not have enough people to watch all the forest paths,” said lieutenant-colonel Le Quang Dao, head of the border guard station at Tan Thanh border gate in Lang Son Province.

Coping with smugglers is more and more difficult because goods are often divided into smaller numbers and transported through paths by motorbikes or porters.

In addition, the leaders of the smuggling rings never appear and are difficult for law enforcement agencies to find.

The ring leaders order everything through modern satellite phones and walkie-talkies.

“The smuggling bosses hire crowds of information providers who watch all activities of customs and border guards 24 hours a day,” Dao said.

“The most serious thing that worries us is the low quality of food that is illegally imported. It can harm customers’ health,” he added.

Recently, Lang Son customs officials and border guards arrested 400 food smugglers who were trying to transport several thousand tonnes of spoiled pork, poultry and eggs into Viet Nam.

In Ha Giang Province, which shares a 277-km border with China, live chickens and ducks are being transported by hundreds of motorbikes.

If the drivers face authorities, the motorbikes speed onto forest paths as fast as possible.

Firecrackers, which cannot be legally sold in Viet Nam, are another product that can bring huge benefits for smugglers.

China recently allowed production and sales of firecrackers, which has spawned illegal trade in the product across borders.

At Tan Thanh bordergate alone, around 600 kilo of firecrackers were seized over the entire year; however, that was a small number compared to other areas.

On the sea, especially near Mong Cai Town in Quang Ninh Province, ships that smuggle goods are disguised as fishing boats.

Smugglers also hire smaller boats to transport goods to the mainland.

In the south, sugar is the hottest product, with an estimated number of 400 tonnes per day going through An Giang Province only. In return, gasoline is illegally exported to Cambodia due to a big difference in price between Viet Nam and Cambodia.

Smugglers have been earning about VND2,000 (US$0.10) for each litre of petrol, and sometimes, even up to VND6,000. —VNS