Environmental police in Hanoi have seized 1.3 tonnes of food and additives whose origin is unknown and 10,000 packs of various kinds of candy.

At 12am on Saturday, a joint inspection team, including environmental crime prevention police agencies from the Ministry of Public Security and the Hanoi police, stopped a suspicious 45-seater passenger vehicle in Dong Da District for examination and discovered it was carrying smuggled goods.

The seized goods included tea, coffee, milk powder and tamarind sauce powder, as well as the candy. Most of the goods had Chinese labels.

The owner of the goods, Doan Quang Hung, 45, from Hai Phong City, failed to show any documents proving the origin of the goods.

Hung told the inspectors he had bought the goods from the northern province of Quang Ninh’s Mong Cai City and hired people to transport them to Hanoi for consumption.

Earlier, on April 14, Hanoi police discovered a large number of doves, suspected to be of Chinese origin, being smuggled from Mong Cai City to Hanoi for consumption.

The police are investigating both cases.

VNS