Gold and other evidence confiscated in the smuggling case by the Ministry of Public Security. — Photo sggp.org.vn

HCM CITY — HCM City police, working with the Ministry of Public Security, busted a major gold smuggling operation and confiscated nearly 200kg of illegal gold.

Gen. Tô Ân Xô, Chief of the Office of the Ministry of Public Security, said that the Economics Police Department (C03) worked with HCM City and Tây Ninh Province police to solve a major gold smuggling case and are working to identify the head of the smuggling operation.

Police confiscated 103 out of 198kg of smuggled gold on September 27 and 28 being brought from Cambodia to Việt Nam.

Other significant evidence included US$2.8 million in dollars and VNĐ26.7 billion (US$1.1 million) in Vietnamese đồng.

Xô also said that this is a major smuggling group that has been operating for a long time in many places in Việt Nam and Cambodia.

Suspects working in the group had been very careful and had an intricate system where they would buy foreign money and exchange it into dollars in Việt Nam.

They then transferred the dollars to Cambodia to buy gold and smuggled them back into Việt Nam.

C03 is now working with relevant authorities to expand the investigation. — VNS