Authorities in the southern coastal Binh Thuan Province's Ham Thuan Bac District yesterday detained a group of local people for selling ‘fake wild boar' meat.

The police found more than 200kg of foul-smelling pork lying on the dirty ground or in Styrofoam boxes during a search of the house of Nguyen Van Tuan, 32, in Phu Long Town.

The meat was not accompanied by food safety certificates, and Tuan did not have a licence to kill animals for meat.

Tuan told the police that he had bought sows from local families, and then used gas torches to burn the pork to make it look like wild boar meat. He sold the meat to dealers in Phan Thiet City and Ham Thuan Bac District.

These dealers buy the meat for VND80,000 (US$ 3.6) per kilogram, and sell it in markets or to restaurants.

Tuan sold about 100kg of pork each day.

However, according to investigation, Tuan used to buy the pork from the southern Dong Nai Province, and a truck transported the meat to him every two or three days.

The police also searched a store of Nguyen Thi Kim Chuong in Ham Duc Commune in the district and found more than 70kg of decomposing pork.

Chuong said she had bought the meat from Tuan to sell in local markets or to restaurants.

The pork has been destroyed.

The case is under further investigation.

Vinh Long seizes 2000 fake helmets

A market inspection team discovered a home-based facility mass producing falsely labelled helmets yesterday in Tam Binh District of this southern province.

Authorities seized over 2,000 finished counterfeit helmets, two drilling machines, presses and raw materials, as well as the components used in manufacturing helmets, such as foam, straps and stamps.

The owner of the house, Nguyen Quoc Thong, revealed that the facility had been leased by Nguyen Van Trieu from Thanh Quoi Commune, Long Ho District. Initially, Trieu said he had leased the house for storing goods, until some other people joined them with machines, hiring another house in the commune as a space for painting helmets. The facility has six employees who assemble and paint the helmets.

The production machines used at the facility are very crude. There is insufficient sponge on the inside of the helmets. The finished products were stamped with the trademarks of famous brands such as Mobifone, Yamaha, Doremon, Honda and Milan.

The product packages were addressed to Camry Ltd, Co., listed at No. 24, 1B Road, Binh Tri Dong Ward, Binh Tan District, HCM City, and Thinh Ltd, Co., listed at 48/5C, Lam Van Ben Street, District 7, HCM City.

Authorities also discovered many unused trademark labels. The owners of the products failed to submit valid documents for these labels.

The representative of the facility could not present a business registration certificate or publication record of product quality. The case is still under investigation.

VNS