VietNamNet Bridge – Just within one year, Vietnamese competent agencies discovered 17 drug trafficking cases in which 53.16 kilos of drugs, 138 kilos of elephant tusks and 28.61 kilos of rhino horns were carried across the border gates.

Tan Son Nhat airport in HCM City

Tan Son Nhat is the biggest international airport in Vietnam which serves 150 international flights arriving and leaving a day with 150,000 passengers. This explains why this is the border gate most popularly used by smugglers.

A lot of kinds of forbidden goods have been carried to Vietnam and to other countries through the Tan Son Nhat Airport, from drugs to wild animals, including the ones listed in the world’s red book.

Most recently, on May 17, the HCM City Customs Agency discovered two Australian citizens Pham Dung Trung, 1977, and Pham Thi To Quyen, 1982 carrying 4.18 kilos of heroin kept in their luggage.

Prior to that, on May 4, Van Trong Nguyen, born in 1977, Ngo Trung Dung, 1986 and Bao Huy, 1993, all Vietnamese nationality, who took a flight from Cambodia, were discovered as carrying 6.14 kilos of methamphetamine.

A report of the HCM City Customs Agency showed that 17 cases of drug trafficking totaling 53.16 kilos have been discovered since 2012.

Especially, wildlife animals have been following different ways to penetrate the Vietnamese market, by land and by air.

Dinh Van Son, Vietnamese nationality, who flew from Europe on May 20, was discovered as carrying six pieces of rhino horns, weighing 5.07 kilos. In early April 2013, the customs agency found NDD, born in 1979, Vietnamese nationality, who arrived in Tan Son Nhat airport with 7.28 kilos of rhino horns.

On January 6, 2013, the customs agency discovered HCC, a Vietnamese citizen, who entered Vietnam after taking a flight with Qatar airline and carried 9 pieces of rhino horns.

The case which once stirred up the public was the one where two Vietnamese men, who did not declare the elephant tusks weighing 138 kilos and could not show the relating documents.

Do Thanh Quang, Head of the Tan Son Nhat Airport’s Customs Agency, said the high number of forbidden goods trafficking cases discovered recently showed that Vietnam is the destination and the departure points for traffickers.

Of the 17 trafficking cases discovered recently, forbidden goods were carried out of Vietnam in six cases, and brought to Vietnam in the other 11 cases.

Quang noted that the traffickers usually put drugs into 2-layer briefcases, shoes’ soles, decoration things (candlesticks) or audio equipments’ covers, while wild animals are covered with tin foil, glazed paper. In many cases, elephants tusks or rhino horns were cut into small pieces and put among private things. The carriers of the forbidden goods were mostly old people, women, students, who were believed to easily escape the watch of the police.

The recent reports of competent agencies show the increasingly high number of wildlife animals, especially rhino horns. A customs officer said that rhino horns trafficking can bring super-profit, which prompts people to smuggle and carry the forbidden goods for profit.

Rhino horns have been hunted by people following the information about their feature of treating serious diseases. The horn is believed to be a kind of panacea which can treat cancer as well. A local newspaper said a kilo of rhino horn is valued at several billions of dong.

Nam Phong