Police in Ho Chi Minh City have detained two members of a ring that had smuggled tens of thousands of mobile devices, including smartphones, laptops, and tablets, worth over US$12 million, from Cambodia.

The municipal police have carried out procedures to prosecute the two local men, 42-year-old Ngo Tan Dat and Nguyen Van Giang, 37, on charges of smuggling, the investigation police agency reported on Saturday.

They were arrested on Thursday, a week after local police, following a tip-off, caught Giang preparing to transport many foam boxes containing mobile phones without supporting documents to a warehouse in the city’s District 8 after receiving them from a transporter.

Police officers seized the illicit phones and escorted Giang to the warehouse, where they discovered 3,948 iPhones, three tablets, 20 positioning devices, and one laptop, which all had no documents, too.

They seized all these items, valued at some VND30 billion ($1.22 million) in total, for investigation. 

Following Giang’s testimonies, local police detained Dat, who led the ring that had bought and transported such contraband mobile devices from Cambodia to the city for sale from December 2021.

Dat confessed that his ring, including a member living in Cambodia, had smuggled more than 22,000 mobile phones, laptops, tablets, and others amounting to VND300 billion ($12.23 million) in value from that country.

City police are tracking down the other members of the ring as well as those who have consumed the smuggled items.

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