The People’s Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City recently filed an indictment against two former anti-smuggling police officers on charges of smuggling by allegedly establishing companies to import machinery into Vietnam.

The indictment showed that Hoang Duy Tien, 37, who was sacked from the police division in charge of dealing with economic crimes, corruption, and smuggling (PC03), took advantage of regulations that allow the import of used machinery, equipment, and production lines.

In 2019, he set up 47 companies and signed agreements with equipment and machinery owners in Japan and China to buy through them.

They would pay him VND78-90 million (US$3,138-3,621) per container of imported goods and he would take care of customs in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese law stipulates that imported machinery should be less than 10 years old or, if not, have written authorization from relevant agencies.

But Tien’s companies imported products more than 10 years old, so he had his staff forge documents to get through customs and sold them at high prices.

Ho Chi Minh City-based Dai Minh Viet Appraisal JSC also issued fake certificates for submitting to customs.

Tien’s crimes were detected in May 2021, and he and four other suspects were arrested later the same month.

Between September 2019 and May 2021, his companies imported 1,287 containers of goods worth VND217 billion ($8.7 million).

Vo Van Dong, 55, another former officer at PC03, was identified as Tien’s main accomplice.

As a deal broker, Dong had Tien import six containers worth VND924 million ($37,179) from February 2021 to May 24, 2021, according to Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper.

He and 24 other suspects, including those who had worked for Dai Minh Viet and the used equipment and machinery owners, were also indicted for the same offense as Tien.

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