Vietnamese police have begun a further probe into the gold smuggling committed by a captain and a flight attendant of flag carrier Vietnam Airlines in South Korea in March upon receiving the two men at a local airport on Friday.

According to the airline, police officers took into custody captain Nguyen Van Dung and flight attendant Nguyen Tuan Phong after the flight bringing them back from South Korea arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi the same day.

Dung, 35, and Phong, 27, had been transferred to the Korea Immigration Service so that they could go home under the decision of Korean authorities.

On May 29, the municipal court in Busan City gave the two Vietnamese men a period of probation for illicitly smuggling gold into South Korea and allowed them to be brought back to Vietnam.

Korean media had reported that a pilot and a flight attendant of Vietnam Airlines were apprehended on April 13 for smuggling a total of six kilograms of gold in their shoes when entering Gimhae International Airport in Busan on March 10.  

According to the Korean media, customs officers at the airport found the Vietnamese captain and flight attendant stashing four and two gold bars, weighing one kilogram each, in their shoes, respectively, without customs declaration when they went through the metal detector system after their flight from Hanoi arrived on that day.

The two Vietnam Airlines employees claimed they were paid US$250 per kilogram of gold successfully transported to South Korea, the media said, adding that they did not know the other was smuggling gold even though they were onboard the same flight.

A Vietnam Airlines spokesman told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that was a violation of laws and the carrier will discipline these individuals as required by the Ministry of Transport and prescribed by the labor code. 

He added that the airline will continue strengthening labor discipline, education, and close cooperation with relevant authorities at both local and foreign airports to inspect the compliance with regulations of its employees when performing their duties there.

Such moves will prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future and maintain the credibility and image of the flag carrier, the representative said.

In April, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) director said the agency would check all security procedures at local airports after the two Vietnam Airlines employees were discovered smuggling gold.

The CAAV was then reviewing all steps in order to clarify why the smuggled gold could pass through all the security checks in Vietnam before being detected during the same process in South Korea, director Lai Xuan Thanh said.

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