Dead and live suckling pigs without quarantine examination, including rotten ones, have been transported regularly from the central province of Quang Ngai to Ho Chi Minh City for sale to restaurants or other eateries, a Tuoi Tre investigation has found.   Pretending to be truck drivers, Tuoi Tre reporters contacted people who belonged to a ring that provided poor quality pigs to numerous buyers who then delivered the goods to restaurants, eateries and markets in various districts in the city. The poor quality pigs were gathered in an area on National Highway 1 in the province before they were loaded onto trucks to be transported to Ho Chi Minh City. The ring has a slaughterhouse in Tinh Ha Commune, Son Tinh District, where suckling pigs, live and dead, are mixed into large cartons for delivery. Workers at the slaughterhouse told Tuoi Tre, “We have to mix dead with live suckling pigs and then sell them to traders at reasonable prices to make a profit.” On the way to transport such poor quality pigs, a driver phoned the slaughterhouse’s owner, Lan, and asked, “What will I do when the truck is stopped by veterinary or animal quarantine officers for examination?” “If so, you pay them VND1-2 million ($47-94). This expense will be shared among us later.”

Hundreds of poor-quality suckling pigs are transported from Lan's slaughterhouse  to Ho Chi Minh City every other day and the ring pays the drivers VND250,000 ($11.7) per carton of pig transported.

At 9 pm on November 17, a truck from the ring arrived at a parking lot in Binh Chanh District and the driver phoned buyers in various districts, including District 5 and 8 and Phu Nhuan and Go Vap District, asking them to come to receive the pigs they had booked.  Mrs. Ngan, one of such buyers, sold the poor-quality pigs at different prices from VND380,000 ($17.7) to VND650,000 ($30.3) - depending on the weight - to restaurants and other eateries not only within HCMC but also in other places, including the Mekong Delta province of Can Tho, the Central Highlands city of Da Lat and the coastal southern city of Vung Tau. 

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