As the Lunar New Year (Tet) approaches, smugglers are adopting sophisticated tactics to evade authorised agencies.
Theykeep a close eye on law enforcement officers' every move, frequentlychange times and places of operation and mobilise crowds to surroundofficers, hindering them from working or grabbing back the confiscatedgoods.
Tin Tuc (News) correspondents in Lang Son provinceobserved that smugglers took advantage of times when law enforcers werechanging shifts or in the dark of the night. They focused on hot spotslike Ro Bon (in Tan Thanh commune), Goc Buoi and Hill 386 (Tan Mycommune) and Khe Thot, Cot Co and Thac Nuoc (Dong Dang town). Whendiscovered, they would change their ways to transport their smuggledgoods along trails and other border openings in Loc Binh district.
InTan My commune, Van Lang district, which has a 6km border with China, thousands of people lining Highway 4B and waiting for law enforcersto be off guard so they could illegally jump across the border to carrythe smuggled goods back into the country.
In this district,authorised agencies have installed 18 checkposts at border crossings, inaddition to hundreds of metres of barbed wire.
"Although eachcheckpost is manned by two to five people, who take turns staying onduty round the clock, smugglers venture to carry goods across in thedark night or on rainy, cold days to test if there is any response fromus," said Nguyen Huu Tri, Director of the Coc Nam Customs Department.
Smugglersalso dispatch people to guard the gates of authorised agencies to keeptrack of law enforcers' movements and inform their accomplices to changedirection, forcing law enforcers to constantly work out plans tomislead or distract them.
Meanwhile, heads of smuggling rings aresparing no effort to encourage "smuggling porters" to work for them byincreasing their pay, from 3,000-5,000 VND (0.14-0.24 USD) to 20,000(almost 1 USD). They also pay the "porters" immediately for smugglingthe goods successfully.
The typical way that the porters smugglegoods is by carrying the goods on their backs or shoulders or puttingthe goods in two baskets hung at the ends of a pole placed on theirshoulders. When they make it to the border, there are motorbikes in waiton the side of the border, which speed as fast as possible to avoidbeing caught. If caught, they send a large number of people to gatheraround the caught motorbike and try to grab back the smuggled goods.After that, some goods are transported to other provinces by minivans orpickup trucks that wait until night falls to leave, while others aremixed with legal cargo of passengers on long-distance buses.
Themost common goods smuggled across the northern border with Chinaare children's toys such as plastic guns and swords, crackers of alltypes, cosmetics, poultry, poultry meat and products made of biganimals. Once inside Vietnam , fake invoices allow them to becirculated on the market.-VNA
Theykeep a close eye on law enforcement officers' every move, frequentlychange times and places of operation and mobilise crowds to surroundofficers, hindering them from working or grabbing back the confiscatedgoods.
Tin Tuc (News) correspondents in Lang Son provinceobserved that smugglers took advantage of times when law enforcers werechanging shifts or in the dark of the night. They focused on hot spotslike Ro Bon (in Tan Thanh commune), Goc Buoi and Hill 386 (Tan Mycommune) and Khe Thot, Cot Co and Thac Nuoc (Dong Dang town). Whendiscovered, they would change their ways to transport their smuggledgoods along trails and other border openings in Loc Binh district.
InTan My commune, Van Lang district, which has a 6km border with China, thousands of people lining Highway 4B and waiting for law enforcersto be off guard so they could illegally jump across the border to carrythe smuggled goods back into the country.
In this district,authorised agencies have installed 18 checkposts at border crossings, inaddition to hundreds of metres of barbed wire.
"Although eachcheckpost is manned by two to five people, who take turns staying onduty round the clock, smugglers venture to carry goods across in thedark night or on rainy, cold days to test if there is any response fromus," said Nguyen Huu Tri, Director of the Coc Nam Customs Department.
Smugglersalso dispatch people to guard the gates of authorised agencies to keeptrack of law enforcers' movements and inform their accomplices to changedirection, forcing law enforcers to constantly work out plans tomislead or distract them.
Meanwhile, heads of smuggling rings aresparing no effort to encourage "smuggling porters" to work for them byincreasing their pay, from 3,000-5,000 VND (0.14-0.24 USD) to 20,000(almost 1 USD). They also pay the "porters" immediately for smugglingthe goods successfully.
The typical way that the porters smugglegoods is by carrying the goods on their backs or shoulders or puttingthe goods in two baskets hung at the ends of a pole placed on theirshoulders. When they make it to the border, there are motorbikes in waiton the side of the border, which speed as fast as possible to avoidbeing caught. If caught, they send a large number of people to gatheraround the caught motorbike and try to grab back the smuggled goods.After that, some goods are transported to other provinces by minivans orpickup trucks that wait until night falls to leave, while others aremixed with legal cargo of passengers on long-distance buses.
Themost common goods smuggled across the northern border with Chinaare children's toys such as plastic guns and swords, crackers of alltypes, cosmetics, poultry, poultry meat and products made of biganimals. Once inside Vietnam , fake invoices allow them to becirculated on the market.-VNA
