Two Japanese nationals have just been sentenced a total of 18 years in jail for allegedly smuggling seven golden statues through Noi Bai International Airport last August.

The two Japanese gold smugglers. Photo: ANTD

Two Japanese nationals were sentenced a total of 18 years in jail for gold smuggling in Vietnam on April 12.

The sentences were given by the Hanoi City People’s Court at a trial court held on Wednesday where Masakazu Iwamura, 46, got a 10-year sentence and Takayoshi Kitada, 34, received an eight-year for smuggling.

According to the indictment, Masakazu Iwamura was the former director of Japan’s RG Innovation Company which specialised in exporting Vietnamese labourers to Japan.

After several working visits to Vietnam, Iwamura decided to buy Vietnamese gold products to sell in Japan as their price was much cheaper than those sold in his home country.

Early last July, Iwamura and Kitada went to Sinh Dien Jewellery Company in the northern province of Bac Ninh city to check samples and the price of handicraft gold products.

They ordered seven golden statues from Sinh Dien company with a total weight of about 6.9kg including four Maitreya Buddha statues and three sets of Tam Đa statues, at a cost of 31.5 million Japanese yen (USD280,780). They agreed to collect the products on August, 2, 2016.

Kitada received 32.3 million Japanese yen (USD287,700) from Iwamura and went to Vietnam to smuggle the statues out of the country. If the trade was successful, Takayoshi Kitada was promised 80,000 Japanese yen (USD713). 

To avoid Vietnam’s customs, Iwamura told Kitada to have seven gold statues coated silver.

On August 3, officials of Noi Bai International Airport discovered the seven statues in Kitada’s luggage that he had not declared to customs and seized them as evidence.

A test conducted later found that the statues were 99.99 per cent gold and worth about VND6.74 billion (USD297,800).

The owner of Sinh Dien Jewellery Company said he was unaware of what the Japanese customers intended to do with the statues. 

Dtinews