Passengers complete immigration procedures at Moc Bai International Border Gate.
The situation of smuggling and trade fraud in the province continues to be unpredictable, increasing sharply in quantity, sophisticated in operation methods, organized into groups, tight lines; subjects take advantage of secondary border gate areas, trails, and openings to illegally transport goods across the border to avoid inspection, supervision and control of functional forces; using means of transporting smuggled goods such as cars, large-displacement motorcycles running at high speed, causing difficulties in fighting and preventing. Therefore, strengthening the fight against smuggling and trade fraud is an important task in current socio-economic development.
Decreased, but still in violation
According to Steering Committee 389 Tay Ninh, in the first 4 months of 2023, smuggling, trade fraud, and illegal transportation of goods at border gate areas still occurred but on a small scale, mainly consumer goods that border residents chopped up and transported from Cambodia to Vietnam through trails, openings, and both sides of the border gate.
The main subjects are residents of border communes in Tan Bien, Tan Chau, Chau Thanh, Ben Cau, Trang Bang districts who specialize in transporting or directly buying and selling smuggled goods from Cambodia to Vietnam; passengers entering and exiting the country, drivers, and assistants passing through border gates to deliver goods; wholesalers buying and collecting duty-free goods; businesses operating duty-free shops; businesses operating goods gathering locations, businesses operating transit and border gate transfers; processing and manufacturing enterprises for export, and export processing enterprises.
Deputy Head of Phuoc Tan Border Guard Station Doan Van Binh said that the smuggling situation in the area in the first months of 2023 decreased compared to the same period in 2022. However, there are still subjects who regularly change the rules, use many different methods and tricks to carry out smuggling acts.
At about 5:15 a.m. on April 28, 2023, in the area of the Hoa Hoi - Hoa Thanh inter-commune asphalt road (old Highway 8), belonging to Group 6, Bo Lon Hamlet, Hoa Hoi Commune, Chau Thanh District, the Working Group of the Drug and Crime Prevention and Control Task Force, Tay Ninh Border Guard Command coordinated with Phuoc Tan Border Guard Station to carry out patrol and control tasks, detected and arrested 1 case/1 subject with the act of "trading in smuggled goods", confiscating evidence of 3,000 kg of sugar.
In Bien Gioi commune, Chau Thanh district, the smuggling situation is complicated. Major Dinh Quang Luc - Deputy Head of the Border Guard Station of Vam Trang Trau said that in recent times, smuggling, trade fraud, and illegal transportation of goods across the border still occurred in small-scale forms, but with a tendency to become more complicated, especially at the end of the year.
Those who illegally transport goods across the border often use motorbikes, take advantage of trails and shortcuts across the border, take advantage of day and night breaks, use road guards to monitor the activities of authorities, and then organize the illegal transportation of goods across the border.
The main smuggled goods are cigarettes, firecrackers, sugar, beer, soft drinks... In the first months of 2023, the Border Guard Station of Vam Trang Trau arrested 3 cases/2 subjects, confiscating 2,560 packs of foreign cigarettes of all kinds.
On March 13, 2023, Moc Bai Customs inspected the imported shipment and discovered that the enterprise had violated the act of importing actual goods that did not match the customs declaration in terms of quantity without documents for additional declaration as prescribed by law, which were synthetic staple fibers from polyester, not carded, not combed or not otherwise processed to spin yarn, with a quantity of 2,233.6 kg (8 packages), the value of the confiscated evidence was more than 46 million VND.
On May 17, 2023, Moc Bai Customs inspected a transit shipment and discovered that the enterprise violated the act of transiting goods without a license, including used mobile phones of the iPhone, Redmi, Huawei, Honor, Oppo brands; quantity 2,518 units, estimated value of confiscated evidence of more than 2 billion VND.
According to Mr. Vo Duy Linh - Deputy Head of the Control Team of Moc Bai Border Gate Customs Branch, large quantities of exported and imported goods, luggage and means of transport entering and exiting the country and transiting the country pose a very high risk of smuggling. Subjects take advantage of the VNACCS/VCIS electronic customs clearance system in classifying declarations in the form of green and yellow channels to mix in prohibited goods and high-tax goods; or passengers entering the country hide goods in their person and carry-on luggage; reinforce means of transport and intermodal passenger vans to hide smuggled goods.
Border Guards at Moc Bai International Border Gate check passengers' documents.
There are many difficulties
According to Steering Committee 389 Tay Ninh, the work of inspecting and controlling smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods still faces some difficulties (especially in border areas) due to the long border and many trails and openings, leading to the potential risk of smuggling from Cambodia to Vietnam.
The number of functional forces tasked with combating smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods is still small, and smuggling activities are increasingly sophisticated; counterfeit and smuggled goods are being traded online in many forms, making it difficult to control and detect.
Most of the business entities on social networking platforms reside in different provinces and even outside the province, using electronic devices and social networks to communicate, transact, and remotely control. The traded goods are diverse, with unknown brands and origins; warehouses and storage areas for goods are scattered everywhere, in small quantities, and without a fixed place of business, so the fight against, arrest of masterminds and leaders, and handling of goods is very difficult, especially in tracing the origin of goods and the background of the subjects. A part of the people are not aware of the impact of smuggling, trade fraud, and counterfeit goods, so they assist or directly participate in illegal activities.
According to Deputy Head of Phuoc Tan Border Guard Station Doan Van Binh, the area has a long border, many trails and shortcuts, which makes it difficult for the unit to inspect and control the border. Smugglers are very aggressive, their activities are increasingly reckless, ready to fight against the authorities to seize seized evidence and means; or threaten, insult, and discredit officers and soldiers on duty.
Mr. Vo Duy Linh - Deputy Head of the Control Team of Moc Bai Border Gate Customs Branch said that according to the provisions of Decree No. 12/2018/ND-CP dated January 23, 2018 on amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 01/2015/ND-CP dated January 2, 2015 of the Government detailing the scope of customs operations, currently on the border line there are 4 road border gates located within the customs operations area, of which 2 border gates have arranged customs forces to carry out import and export procedures, 2 road border gates are located within the customs operations area but have not yet been arranged forces, only performing patrol and control work, grasping information about the situation in the area.
Due to the large area of operation and the small number of officials in charge of control, the work of combating smuggling, trade fraud, and illegal transportation of goods across the border faces many difficulties.
Moc Bai Border Gate Customs Branch forces perform the task of screening goods of passengers entering and exiting the country.
The work of detecting, combating and eliminating smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods mainly only deals with hired transporters who play an unimportant role in criminal networks and organizations; in many cases, the owners are arrested and prosecuted without permission.
The methods and tricks of smuggling are becoming more and more sophisticated; to deal with the authorities, the masterminds and ringleaders behind the scenes direct criminal activities via phone; so the work of fighting and proving criminal acts to arrest the masterminds and ringleaders faces many difficulties.
Major Dinh Quang Luc said that the border area assigned to the unit is large (including both river and land borders), with complex terrain, many trails, shortcuts, and canals crossing the border, making it convenient for subjects to smuggle, illegally transport goods across the border, and illegally enter and exit the country.
Some items such as firecrackers, cigarettes, sugar, foreign alcohol... are not considered prohibited by the Cambodian government. Taking advantage of this policy, traders collude with Cambodian citizens to build warehouses to gather goods near the border, waiting for opportunities and loopholes of the authorities to transport them into Vietnam for consumption.
Nhi Tran
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