More than one billion packs of cigarette have been illicitly transported into Vietnam so far this year, the Market Surveillance Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has reported.

“Cigarette smuggling remains rife in Vietnam,” the market watchdog agency said in a preliminary report to recap its efforts to combat smuggled tobacco.

The agency has so far handled 4,712 tobacco smuggling cases, and transferred 21 of these to police for indictment.

Officers have also seized eight cars, 432 motorbikes, and seven boats which smugglers used to transport the illicit products.

The Market Surveillance Agency, however, admitted that their efforts have failed to ease the situation, due to certain problems.

For example, there is little cooperation between relevant agencies in raiding and busting cigarette smuggling rings, the agency said.

Tobacco smugglers, meanwhile, use sophisticated tricks to hide their products. Smuggled tobacco is no longer kept at stores or shops, but at smugglers’ houses and other locations, according to the agency.

Smugglers are usually able to hide the products by the time officers obtain a warrant to search their houses, it added.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Do Thang Hai, has ordered that relevant agencies in big cities must collaborate better to fight smuggled cigarettes.

As for the border areas, more checkpoints must be set up along the streets that smugglers tend to use for their illegal transportation, Hai said.

JET and HERO products account for more than 90 percent of the contraband cigarette market in Vietnam, according to the Vietnam Tobacco Association.

Both of the products breach a number of regulations on tobacco management stipulated by Vietnamese law, the association said.

JET and HERO brands are sold without the picture-based health warning, place and year of manufacture, and expiration date.

The toxicity of the two products is also far higher than the rates allowed by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health.

It is estimated that more than 2.3 million Vietnamese will be sickened and have a higher chance of dying every year even if they only smoke a cigarette a day.

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