Alarm about telecommunication cable theft
Recently, dozens of cases of telecommunication cable theft have occurred continuously in the province, seriously affecting the telecommunications transmission system and causing economic losses of hundreds of millions of dong. It is worth mentioning that most of the perpetrators of cable theft are minors...
A new kind of crime
In recent years, telecommunication cable theft in the province has tended to increase. In 2010, the province had 123 theft cases with more than 10,000 meters of cables of all kinds stolen. In 2011, in the first 5 months of the year alone, 38 cases of telecommunication line theft were discovered, of which 8 cases occurred in Vinh City, 5 in Nghi Loc, 6 in Yen Thanh, and 6 in Tan Ky.
A summary of the 5 years from 2006 to 2011 also shows that in Quynh Luu district alone, there were 46 cases of telecommunication cable theft, mainly concentrated in remote areas, far from residential areas, with few people passing by, such as the conveyor belt area of Nghi Son Cement Factory, Khe De bridge area in Quynh Tam commune....
In Vinh City, out of 8 newly discovered cable theft cases in 2011, 6 were committed by a group of people including Le Duy Cuong (1987 - My Hoa hamlet, Hung Loc commune), Duong Hong Phuc (1987), Duong Xuan Hung (1996), all from Phong Phu hamlet, Hung Hoa commune. Le Duy Cuong had just been released from prison for cable theft and now reoffended. Through investigation, they confessed: At night, from around 10pm to 2am, they rode motorbikes to deserted places, climbed electric poles, used knives and saws to cut the cables, then brought them to Phong Phu hamlet cemetery to burn the sheath to get the copper core to sell.
Subject and evidence of a cable theft case in Nam Kim commune (Nam Dan)
An alarming fact today is that the majority of those who steal telecommunication cables are of school age, most of whom are in secondary and high school. For example, in Quynh Luu, out of 46 cable theft cases, more than 2/3 were students born between 1988 and 1996. In Yen Thanh, a group of cable thieves was recently caught, including 14 students in grades 8 and 9 at Lang Thanh Secondary School. The reason for the crime was to show off, need money to play games, play lottery, and buy mobile phones. In addition, it was due to the lack of attention and supervision from families and schools.
Lieutenant Colonel Ho Trung Quyet - Deputy Head of the Economic Security Department, Provincial Police added: One of the reasons why telecommunication cable theft has occurred frequently in recent times is because Nghe An's terrain is large, thieves often take advantage of the late night, where few people pass by. Although the telecommunications industry has installed automatic warning systems at key routes and areas with high risk of theft, because most of them are far from residential areas, when the authorities arrive, the subjects have already committed the crime or have time to escape.
Investigating these cases is not easy because they are often spontaneous, small-scale thefts, and the participants are quite diverse. Furthermore, the core force working on security protection on the postal and telecommunications network is still limited in qualifications and lacks facilities, so it cannot meet the actual requirements...
Focus on prevention and protection
With more than 100 cable theft cases a year, the police have to handle an average of 12 cases per month. Along with that, the damage to the telecommunications industry is not small: Just counting the consequences of cable theft, the telecommunications industry loses hundreds of millions of dong each year, not to mention the economic damage due to interrupted transmission lines, loss of communication...
Recognizing the complexity and seriousness of this type of crime, over the years, Nghe An Telecom has coordinated with the Provincial Police to implement a program to protect postal and telecommunications network security. Through this program, more than half of telecommunications cable theft cases have been investigated and hundreds of criminals have been caught and prosecuted.
However, the dissemination of legal documents on the protection of the BCVT network has not been regular, not extensive, and the form of dissemination is not close to reality... so the awareness of a number of cadres and people is still limited, considering it a task of the functional sector. Handling criminals also faces many difficulties; most criminals are not old enough to be prosecuted, so they are mainly handled at the level of administrative sanctions and warnings at school.
For example, in the case of cable theft by 14 students at Lang Thanh Secondary School, after paying the administrative fine, the school only followed the law: "criticizing the students, suspending them from school for a month and lowering their conduct to poor" - teacher Nguyen Xuan Son, the school's principal, added.
Therefore, for more effective prevention, in addition to investigation and solving crimes, the work of protecting the BCVT system must be given top priority, and this must be identified as a task within the movement of the entire people to protect national security. Relevant sectors also need to promptly advise local Party committees and authorities, organize education, mobilize the masses to participate in protecting the network, denounce and detect to the police and post and telecommunications forces subjects who have violated the network system; advise the authorities of communes and towns to launch a campaign to sign a commitment with each household in the work of protecting the BCVT network passing through the area. On the part of schools, in addition to teaching culture, it is necessary to propagate the content of protecting the BCVT network in extracurricular hours.
My Ha - Khanh Ly
