The police department of southern Tay Ninh Province said it has suspended 29 traffic police officers pending investigation into their allegedly taking bribes from drivers who committed traffic violations.

>> Former cop gets 3 years for taking bribe>> Cops blatantly take bribes, threaten drivers These officers will be suspended for one month and their direct superiors will be considered for disciplinary actions, Major General Ngo Quang Long, director of the department, said on Friday. These policemen belong to several police units in Tay Ninh Town and Tan Bien and Tan Chau Districts. Many residents have recently exported to the department that these officers received bribes from drivers who had committed traffic violations such as overloading, speeding, and driving on the wrong lanes, among many others while traveling on many roads in the province and the National Highway 22B section from Tan Bien to Ho Chi Minh City.

In order to facilitate the investigation of the allegation, the department has decided to suspend all the officers involved, the Major General said. A similar case happened in central Thanh Hoa Province last year, when the provincial People’s Court sentenced two former traffic police officers for taking a bribe of US$240 from a truck driver who had violated traffic rule. At their trial on September 21, 2012, former major Le Hong Duan, 37, was sentenced to 3 years in jail while former lieutenant Nguyen Thanh Hai, 27, received 30 months imprisonment. This bribery case was exposed in an investigative article published in Tuoi Tre’s Vietnamese-language daily newspaper in early September 2011. The article was also published in English with the title “Cops blatantly take bribes, threaten drivers” on TuoiTreNews (tuoitrenews.vn) on September 6, 2011.