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 cooking 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.

Source: VNS