HCM CITY — HCM City’s police has called for prosecution against two South Koreans detained on smuggling charges, Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Saigon) reported.

The police on Sunday proposed that the municipal People’s Procuracy begin legal proceedings against two South Korean citizens -- Cho In Soo, 37, and Her Min Chul, 37, -- for alleged smuggling and Vietnamese citizen Dương Minh Thi, 31, living in District 7, HCMC, for alleged smuggling across the border.

According to police investigation, Cho In-Soo and Ha Min Chul had bought used mobile phones in South Korea to resell in Việt Nam.

On the afternoon of April 22, 2016, the HCM City division of economic and corruption crime investigation (PC46), in collaboration with the Customs Branch of the Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport, caught the two subjects red-handed illegally smuggling 96 used mobile phones (all South Korean brands - Samsung, LG, Luna, and Vega) without customs declaration while they were being processed for entry into Việt Nam.

The suspects told the police that they planned to sell these phones to a South Korean currently residing in Phú Mỹ Hưng (District 7, HCMC), but did not know the name and address of the person.

For each phone sold, they would make some VNĐ100,000-150,000 in profit.

As per the valuation results, these 96 phones have a total value of VNĐ342 million (VAT excluded).

The Consulate General of the South Korea Republic in HCM City has confirmed that Cho In Soo and Her Min Chul, have a record of breaking the law several times back in their home country.

Dương Minh Thi was on the same flight from South Korea to Việt Nam with two South Korean nationals. The two cases are, however, unrelated. The authorities discovered 24 mobile phones (Samsung, LG and Luna brands), 240 mobile phone batteries, four rice cookers, 739 lipsticks, and 191 brimmed hats inside her baggage, all without customs declaration.

Thi allegedly told police that she bought the 240 mobile phone batteries and planned to sell them to mobile phone stores in Việt Nam. However, with regard to the rest, she said she was hired to smuggle them from South Korea into Việt Nam. She was told she would receive payment of US$13 for each phone she carried, VNĐ70,000 for each hat, VNĐ120,000 for a lipstick and VNĐ40,000 for each rice cooker.

The estimated total value of the smuggled goods in this case stands at VNĐ437 million (VAT excluded). – VNS