An used gambling machine is seized at HCM City’s Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoàng Hải |
HCM CITY — Customs officers and anti-smuggling police on Monday seized a consignment of used gambling machines worth some VNĐ400 million (US$18,000) at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport.
This kind of machine is banned from being imported into Việt Nam and is only permitted to enter the country upon receiving a permit from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
According to the airport border-gate customs, a limited company based in HCM City’s District 7 applied procedures to transport the consignment via Việt Nam to Cambodia. The consignment was claimed to contain new entertainment machines, weighing almost 1.5 tonnes and worth VNĐ400 million.
However, upon examination of the goods, customs found that the machines were used.
According to the Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport Border-gate Customs, smugglers have transported goods via Việt Nam to Cambodia by air. After the goods arrive in Cambodia, they are transported by road from Cambodia to Việt Nam’s provinces such as Tây Ninh, An Giang or Bình Phước.
The airport border-gate customs has cracked down on seven such cases, with smuggled goods worth nearly VNĐ10 billion. — VNS