Preventing food smuggling: Blocking the Chi Ma area

- In 2025, the Chi Ma border gate area ( Lang Son ) has emerged as a hot spot for food smuggling, especially frozen goods such as ham hocks, sausages and chicken feet. This is also the area with the highest number of illegal transportation cases compared to other border areas in the region. To prevent this, the authorities have made efforts to deploy measures, thereby detecting many illegal transportation cases and seizing tons of various types of food.

According to statistics from the Chi Ma Border Guard Station, from the beginning of 2025 to now, the station has prevented and arrested 12 cases of illegal food transportation across the border area and border gates, seizing 230 kg of frozen pork legs, nearly 500 kg of sausages and 2 tons of frozen chicken feet.

In addition, the station also coordinated with the border customs to prevent and arrest 11 cases of illegal food transportation through the border gate area, seizing nearly 3.2 tons of various types of food. Most recently, on the night of July 28, in the Doc Da area, Quan Phat village, Mau Son commune, (about 300 m from milestone 1228 on the Vietnamese side), the working group of the Chi Ma Border Guard Station, in coordination with the Chi Ma Border Customs, prevented a subject from illegally transporting across the border 4 sacks of pineapple containing 40 bags of frozen sausages, with foreign labels, of unknown origin.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Thach, Deputy Head of the Chi Ma Border Guard Station, said: In the face of such developments, in parallel with preventing illegal entry and exit, the unit has deployed professional measures to promptly detect illegal transportation of smuggled goods in general and food in particular across the border and border gate areas. In particular, the station coordinated with the anti-smuggling team of the Chi Ma Border Guard Station and the Mau Son Commune Police to set up checkpoints at key locations at risk of illegal food transportation.

Border guards and customs at Chi Ma border gate coordinate to patrol the trails and shortcuts on the border.

In addition to the border guards, Chi Ma Border Gate Customs also increased its force and proactively coordinated with other forces to implement measures to prevent illegal food transportation.

Mr. Trieu Quang Hoa, Deputy Head of Chi Ma Border Gate Customs, said: Recently, through professional measures, the customs force of the team has discovered many subjects illegally transporting food items through the border gate area and outside the border gate area. Faced with this reality, the unit has developed plans and solutions to prevent this behavior, minimizing the smuggling of food of unknown origin into the country.

It is known that recently, the situation of subjects transporting frozen food of unknown origin through the border and Chi Ma border gate has been quite complicated, especially from March 2025 to present. Accordingly, in the first 8 months of the year, the functional forces here have discovered and arrested 24 cases of illegal transportation, seizing nearly 6 tons of food of unknown origin.

According to the authorities, the demand for domestic goods, especially food, will continue to increase in the coming time, so the subjects will increase the illegal transportation of these goods from China to Vietnam by sophisticated and cunning tricks such as mainly transporting at night through trails and shortcuts on the border or mixing them with imported goods through border gates to deceive the authorities.

To continue to effectively prevent subjects from illegally transporting goods in general and food in particular through the area, from now until the end of 2025, Chi Ma Border Guard Station and Chi Ma Customs will continue to coordinate with Steering Committee 389 of Mau Son Commune, Mau Son Commune Police, Market Management Team No. 3 (in charge of the communes: Loc Binh, Mau Son, Na Duong, Loi Bac, Thong Nhat, Xuan Duong, Khuat Xa, Dinh Lap, Chau Son, Kien Moc, Thai Binh ) to regularly grasp the situation in order to promptly coordinate and deploy to prevent subjects from illegally storing and transporting food of unknown origin.

In particular, the Chi Ma Border Guard Station will increase the frequency of patrolling the border in the area under its management; proactively arrange forces to block trails and shortcuts on the border; coordinate with the People's Committee of Mau Son commune to step up propaganda for people in border villages not to assist in smuggling. In particular, deploy professional measures to promptly destroy gathering points of food of unknown origin in Mau Son border commune.

At the same time, in addition to arranging forces with border guards to patrol and close the border, Chi Ma Border Gate Customs continues to closely monitor vehicles carrying import and export goods through the border gate area to promptly detect and prevent frozen foods from being smuggled into shipments of goods.

Chi Ma Border Control Station officers check vehicles carrying imported goods through Chi Ma border gate.

It is forecasted that the smuggling situation will continue to be complicated in the coming time, requiring the functional forces in Chi Ma to always be ready to fight. Along with the patrolling and blocking efforts of the functional forces, there needs to be more participation from the people, each person is an "eye and ear" to help the functional forces in preventing smuggling, preventing smuggled goods in general, smuggled food in particular, which will contribute to building a safe border, minimizing smuggled goods and food of unknown origin into the country.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, Captain of Market Management Team No. 3, said: In the coming time, Market Management Team No. 3 will continue to coordinate with functional forces to carry out checkpoints and patrols on National Highway 4B, Provincial Road 236 and other routes leading to and from border communes, including Mau Son commune, to prevent food of unknown origin from entering the country. At the same time, in order to completely prevent the illegal transportation of food of unknown origin through the Chi Ma area, the team has instructed and advised the People's Committees of communes under the management of the unit to establish Steering Committee 389. With these solutions, it is believed that in the coming time, the coordination to prevent illegal transportation of smuggled goods in general and food in particular through border areas and border gates will be more effective.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/ngan-thuc-pham-xuat-nhap-lau-chot-chan-khu-vuc-chi-ma-5057343.html