The Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said customs at Tan Son Nhat Airport is not held responsible for the case in which 600 bricks of heroin were not detected on their way to Taiwan on November 16.

The statement was made by Tran Ma Thong, deputy head of the department, at a meeting with media on December 2.

Thong said whether or not the goods are directly examined by customs officers depends on how the goods are grouped based on assessment of the consignors in terms of their compliance with customs regulations in the past.     Accordingly, if goods are grouped into the green-line, this means they qualify for easy clearance and allowed to go through customs clearance without direct inspection.

If the goods are grouped into the yellow line, document checks are required; and if the goods are grouped into the red line,  the goods must pass through direct checks, Thong said.

Based on this procedure, customs officers did not examine the shipment containing drugs on November 16, since computers had selected it as belonging to the green line, Thong said. The consignor of the shipment is Long Van Freight Forwarding and Transportation Service Co Ltd, whose office is located in District 3, HCMC. As this company was identified by the computer network as not yet violating any customs, tax, or other regulations, the shipment was automatically grouped into the green line, which requires no direct inspection, Thong said.  “So far we have confirmed that customs at Tan Son Nhat Airport have committed no fault in the case involving 600 bricks of heroin. However, if police can identify wrongdoings by any customs officers, we will strictly punish the wrongdoers,” Thong said.Waiting for investigation results In response to the HCMC Customs Department’s explanation, Tran Thuy Minh, director of the Southern Airports Authority, said, “It is imperative to clarify how the drugs have been brought into Vietnam and then transported into the airport to be sent to Taiwan.” Minh said her agency has submitted proposed solutions to the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration, the Transport Ministry, and the Vietnam National Civil Aviation Security Committee to improve goods inspections to prevent similar cases from occurring in the future. “We are waiting for the results of the investigation so that we can identify who must be responsible for the case.” In late November, Tan Son Nhat Security Services Company suspended four security executives for failing to discover the hidden heroin. These executives, who belong to a team in charge of scanning and inspecting goods at the airport, have been held responsible for enabling the heroin to pass through the airport customs undetected, the company said. The drugs were discovered by Taiwanese law enforcers after the shipment arrived at the Taoyuan International Airport on November 17. The drugs were found hidden in 12 empty stereo speakers, each of which contained 50 packages of heroin. The street value of the drugs is estimated at about $380 million.