VietNamNet Bridge – Smuggled goods blatantly transported on the waterway and land accesses is a challenge over the past years to the authorities in border areas of Cambodia and Vietnam.

The goods that are trafficked along the 100km border between Vietnam and Cambodia in the southern province of An Giang include gold, tobacco, sugar, wines, cosmetics and auto parts. Smugglers operate strongly in Vinh Nguon commune (Chau Doc Town), the town of Tinh Bien (Tinh Bien district) and Khanh An town, Long Binh township (An Phu district).

Smuggling rampant on the waterway

In the first week of September, along National Highway 91, in Chau Doc town (An Giang province), smuggling points along the border of Vietnam and Cambodia operated very dynamically in the flooding season.
 
Despite the presence of many anti-smuggling agencies in Chau Doc town, hundreds of smugglers still “work” day and night to bring smuggled goods from Cambodia to An Giang via the border.

Goods are packed in small boxes to carry in different ways into Vietnam.

Smugglers hire people living along the border to carry smuggled goods by boats along the canals of Chac Ri, Vinh Te and Cay Gao. These canals run from Cambodia to Vietnam’s Vinh Nguon and Vinh Te communes in Chau Doc town.

Smuggled goods are grouped up at many places, then, smugglers take advantage of the loopholes of the crime prevention agencies to take the goods by waterway or land once again to the city of. Long Xuyen (An Giang) and to other provinces in the Mekong Delta.

The “territory” of contrabands is Ta Mau hill in Cambodia. There are warehouses for smuggled goods and casinos for Vietnamese gamblers there. Each group of motorcycles transport smuggled goods from these warehouses to An Giang through the National Highway 91.



Nearly 5am, we stopped at a roadside noodle restaurant on National Highway 91. There we saw groups of 3 to 4 motorcycles carrying shipments of cigarettes, cosmetics running on the highway.

Most of the motorbikes carrying smuggled cargo had their registration plates to be sealed in plastic bags. Whenever being discovered by the authorities, they are ready to drop goods behind to escape.

The owner of the noodle restaurant revealed: "Every morning dozens of motorcycles carrying smuggled goods run through here. Go to anywhere they have informers who call them on the phone to tell them whether there are anti-smuggling officers on the road or not. To be honest, I also have a cousin who does this job. I have repeatedly told him to seek another job but he did not."

According to this woman, it is too normal for the local people to carry contraband. They regard it as a livelihood. What do they do in this border area without smuggling?

Ta Mau smuggling territory

To pass through the border, we had to disguised as gamblers and hired a boat to run along Cay Gao canal to penetrate deeply into Ta Mau hill, which is considered to be the mecca of smugglers.

The boat driver, Mr. Nha, did not forget to tell us before he started the engine: "You go to the market just to see or purchase goods. Do not use cell phones or cameras to take pictures. There are spies of protection forces of casinos and smugglers around the market and casinos."

Nha also said that to be able to drive boat from An Giang to Ta Mau, he must have a guarantee. There is a "crew" dominated from top to bottom.

The boat started and took us across the border to Ta Mau within 10 minutes. At the confluence, there were dozens of boats anchored, ready to go. Many big boats carrying contrabands were being unloaded. From here, smuggled goods will become Made-in-Vietnam products to beat the anti-smuggling agencies.
 
High-profit items are tobacco and Thai sugar. Most of the vessels there are called "ghost ships" because they do not have registration plates and numbers.

All cargo ships carrying smuggled goods from inland Cambodia and Thailand gather at Ta Wood. Groups of indigenous people and Vietnamese carried goods from ships to 30 big warehouses in Ta Mau.

Kiosks are built in Ta Mau to sell goods but these kiosks are just fronts for collecting contrabands to bring into Vietnam.

Talking with VietNamNet’s reporters, Mr. Phan Loi, Deputy Director of the Market Management Department of An Giang Province said: "The customs, border guard and police forces have tried their best to fight smuggling. About invoices that are traded turnaround at the border, we have reported to the Ministry of Finance for many years but it has not been resolved."

Quoc Huy