The illegal cigarettes seized by the police. — VNA/VNS Photo Du Toan |
More than 76,000 packets of cigarettes were seized.
Police said that at about 1pm on Tuesday, they caught Truong Van Toan, 36 and Le The Hoang, 26, in the act of transporting cigarettes to store at a location in the Trà Đa Industrial Zone in Pleiku City.
There were reportedly about 21,000 packets of illegally imported cigarettes in their truck.
Police also seized more than 20,000 other packets from a location in the industrial zone.
Toan and Hoang reportedly admitted to police that they had transported the cigarettes from Duc Co District to the industrial zone and planned to sell them.
Also on Tuesday afternoon, police raided other storage locations used by the ring and caught four other members, aged between 52 and 29. More packets of cigarettes were seized from the four people. — VNS
Tackling cigarette smuggling remains endless battle for agencies
Cigarette smuggling on the rise as the year ends and it is not easy for the State agents to fight it in southwester provinces and cities such as Long An and HCM City.
Cigarette smuggling boats seized in Vietnamese waters
Vietnamese customs officers have seized 58 boxes of smuggled cigarettes in Vietnamese waters, online newspaper vietnamplus.vn (Vietnam News Agency) reported yesterday.