Vietnam - no headway has been made against the trafficking of illegal cigarettes..

January 14, 2011 - While cross-border smuggling in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta's border areas has decreased somewhat, no headway has been made against the trafficking of cigarette, local authorities concede.

They say that the highly porous borders, lack of co-ordination between concerned agencies, lax local management as well as increasingly sophisticated and risky ruses employed by smugglers make containment extremely difficult.

Directly related news briefs:
November 27, 2010 - Mekong Delta, Vietnam - the flow of smuggled cigarette from Cambodia continues...
July 21, 2010 Vietnam - cigarette smuggling increases from year-to-year..

The three hotspots for the smuggling in the region are the provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Kien Giang, all of which border Cambodia. In the lead up to the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival, the inflow of smuggled cigarettes from this area to Ho Chi Minh City (HCM City) has increased significantly.

The three Mekong Delta provinces account for 80 percent of the total smuggled cigarettes consumed in the HCM City and the Delta markets.

The most common method of smuggling cigarette was to transport them after splitting the cargo into smaller amounts, mostly by motorbikes that travel at high speed. The drivers always chose to go into heavy traffic during peak hours, making it very difficult for the police and customs officers to chase and catch them.

According to the Viet Nam Tobacco Association, only one per cent, or 7.3 million packs, of the total cigarettes smuggled into Viet Nam was seized last year. Around 800 million packs were smuggled into Viet Nam last year through the southern region's western border, equivalent to 20 percent of the nation's total consumption.

Last year saw Kien Giang customs and police crack 38 smuggling cases and seize property worth more than VND300 million (US$15,300), including a small number of cigarette cases. This was 24 per cent lower than the previous year. In the first 11 months of last year, anti-smuggling forces in Long An managed to seize only around 900,000 packs of cigarette.

Reference: ‘Smoking gun' evades Delta officialsViet Nam News, 1/14/2011.

Some Vietnam related news briefs:
Mekong Delta, Vietnam - the flow of smuggled cigarette from Cambodia continues..;
Viet Nam - foreign tobacco firms feel the squeeze, lose business certificates..;
VietNam - number of smokers falls slightly but tobacco still kills 40,000 each year..;
Viet Nam - over million signatures obtained during an anti-smoking campaign..;
Vietnam - cigarette smuggling increases from year-to-year..;
Viet Nam - smokers, vendors think tobacco control measures are a joke..;
Viet Nam - WHO increase cigarette tax to lower smoking rate..;
Vietnam - who will enforce smoking ban to start January 1, 2010??;
Vietnam - national campaign launched calling for smoking ban..;
Third Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam smokefree..;
Viet Nam - to ban smoking and increase tax..;
PMI's Future: From Remarks by Louis C. Camilleri, Chairman and CEO-elect and Andre Calantzopoulos, Chief Operating Officer-elect after the spin-off of..; (VietNam)

Viet Nam is a member of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (Seatca).