Vietnamese border guards in the central province of Quang Binh have arrested two Laotians for illegally transporting large amounts of firecrackers into Vietnam last Saturday.
>> Exposed: Firecracker guns sneakily traded in Ho Chi Minh City
The provincial border guard force on Monday said they had detained two Laotians at Cha Lo international border gate after discovering about 1,000 firecrackers weighing 29 kg hidden in their container truck.
The names of the detainees in Vietnamese are Vi Lay Sac, the vehicle’s driver, and En Xay Nha San, Sac’s assistant.
The discovery of the banned goods was made at 6:00 pm on January 31, when border guards and customs officers were examining a container truck with Lao registration number plate UN-0933.
Neither of the men had documents to prove the origin of the firecrackers, simply saying that a Vietnamese man called Van had hired them to carry the goods from Laos into Vietnam for 350,000 Laotian Kip (US$43.2).
Van had said he would contact the hired transporters to receive the firecrackers when the goods were successfully brought into Vietnam, the detainees said.
Local customs officers and border guards are investigating to identify Van as well as the origin of the banned goods.
Senior Lieutenant Colonel Ha Ngoc Viet, head of the border guard station at the border gate, said that his force and the local customs team have uncovered 10 cases of firecracker smuggling, arresting 16 suspects and confiscating nearly one tonne of firecrackers of various kinds over the past month.
Vietnam issued a ban on making, selling and setting off firecrackers in 1994 for safety and security reasons.
In the time before 1994, firecrackers were usually set off in Vietnam before and during the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday as a traditional custom.
This year’s Tet will fall on February 19.
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