On June 24, the investigation agency prosecuted 18 individuals for smuggling and two individuals for evading tax in a case at Phu Quy Gold Investment JSC.

According to a spokesperson of the ministry, the fight against the gold smuggling ring was deployed under the ministry’s instructions.

The police found that beginning in 2022, Nguyen Thi Hoa, residing in Huong Hoa district in Quang Tri province, and Nguyen Thi Gai organized a ring of smuggling more than 3 tons of gold worth VND5 trillion. The gold was brought from Laos to Vietnam via Lao Bao border gate in Quang Tri and sold to gold shops in Vietnam for illegal profits.

The investigation also found that Phu Quy was dishonest in making tax declarations and finalization for the business in 2021, committing fraud for evading tax, thus causing losses to the state, totaling VND6.145 billion.

With the documents and evidence collected, the investigation agency released a decision to take legal proceedings against Phu Quy Gold Investment JSC and relevant units for smuggling gold and evading tax at Lao Bao border gate.

At the same time, the investigation agency decided to prosecute 20 subjects on charges of smuggling and evading tax.

Prior to that, on June 14, professional units under the Ministry of Public Security used tens of officers who searched the homes of subjects in Lao Bao Town in Huong Hoa district in Quang Tri province.

The search was conducted with the support of the local police and the witness of locals.

For many local people in the border town, the arrest of Hoa and the discovery of the gold smuggling ring was not a surprise. They kept calm, witnessing the search at her home. 

For a long time, locals have wondered about the suspicious wealth of Hoa’s family. Hoa is called a gold smuggling tycoon in the border area of Quang Tri.

With deep understanding about the terrain of Quang Tri and the trails which they could use to cross the border, Hoa hired people to carry gold from Laos to Vietnam.

The subjects of the ring carrying and smuggling gold used sophisticated and cunning tricks to transport smuggled gold. Hoa’s major clients were gold shops in Vietnam. The pay to carriers depended on the amount of gold, and the carriers were all close relatives.

Nguyen Thi Hoa, who is said to lead the ring, is Nguyen Thi Gai's sister-in-law; Do Thi Thuy is the wife of the Uncle of Hoa and Gai; Nguyen Huu Phuong and Nguyen Huu Binh are both Hoa’s brothers; Nguyen Thi Van is the nephew of Hoa's husband; Nguyen Van Thuong is Hoa's uncle; Nguyen Thi Thien is the wife of Nguyen Huu Phuong; and Nguyen Thi Thuy is Thien's sister.

In order to escape agencies’ notice and hide her smuggling activities, Nguyen Thi Hoa ran a goldsmith shop called Phu Quy Shop, located on a central street in Lao Bao Town. The shop was registered in the name of her son.

The provinces in the western part of the southern region, because of their typical geographical positions, with long border lines with the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia, trailers and forests, are the ‘hot spots’ for crimes to exploit, especially smugglers.

Quang Thanh