VCN – The tricks of concealment, disguise and experience drawn from drug trafficking cases have been compiled into a professional manual by two customs officers of HCM Express Customs Branch of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department. This initiative has worked effectively in combating smuggling.
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| Customs officers exchange experience from the handbook. Photo: H.T |
Many cases of illegal transportation of drugs with many sophisticated tricks via post and express delivery service have been detected by the Express Customs Branch under Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, especially during the peak time of Covid-19 pandemic prevention in 2021.
The experience of seizure, the tricks of hiding and disguising the drugs have been summarized in a book titled “Professional manuals to prevent illegal transportation of drugs by post and express delivery” by Head of the Postal Procedures Team Mai Thi Cam Van and officer Le Thien Vu (HCM Express Customs Branch) with many practical contents to serve the fight against smuggling, especially the prevention of drug trafficking cases within the unit.
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| Smugglers usually disguise cannabis inside tea box or coffee box |
Mrs. Van said that those practical experiences would help to cultivate and strengthen professional skills for customs officers performing the task of screening and inspection of goods to proactively, promptly identify and detect signs of violations in the course of performing their duties.
From that, customs officers would improve responses in the fight against smuggling and illegal transportation of narcotics by post and express delivery, which are used by the subjects to bring drugs into Vietnam, as well as transit to other countries.
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| Synthetic drugs have candy shapes so smugglers usually disguise them inside candy boxes and mix them in gift parcels. |
As one of the customs officers who directly screened and discovered a number of sophisticated cases of drug concealment in parcels, Mrs. To Thi Thom said this handbook was drawn from the practical experience through drug cases discovered and handled by the Postal Customs Procedure Team – Express Customs Department in recent years.
From the experiences and tricks summed up and shared in the handbook, it would help customs officers performing their duties to gain more experience in diagnosing, identifying as well as identifying accurately suspect shipments. Since then, many sophisticated drug cases had been detected and prevented by the officers in the team.
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| Drugs are disguises inside plastic plate |
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| Drugs are laminated between two layouts of carton box |
Evaluating the effectiveness of drug prevention by post and express delivery, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department Dinh Ngoc Thang said officers and employees of the Express Customs Branch must carry out customs procedures for thousands of parcels of import and export every day.
Among a large number of parcels, there were packages that were to hide drugs. There were packages of hidden drugs that were with dozens of packages. Without professional experience, as well as a high sense of responsibility, it was difficult to detect and prevent the tricks of the subjects.
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| Heroin and methamphetamine are disguised inside scented candle blocks. The smugglers use essential oil to deactivate sniffer dogs of competent authority. |
The tricks of smugglers were sophisticated and unpredictable, thus the research and learning to improve the skills and experience of the customs officers doing specific tasks at all stages of their operations.
The initiative of developing the book “Professional manuals to prevent illegal transportation of drugs by post and express delivery” by the group of customs officials was one of the valuable professional documents for customs officers when performing duties related to drug prevention.
By Lê Thu/Thanh Thuy