Police announce the discovery of two counterfeit bird's nest brands and seize over 70,000 jars.
The Thanh Hoa Provincial Police have just dismantled a nationwide ring producing and selling counterfeit bird's nest jars, seizing over 70,000 products with a total weight of over 15 tons.
On June 12th, the Thanh Hoa Provincial Police announced that the Economic Police Department had initiated a criminal case and indicted Vu Thuy Trang (born in 1991, residing in Ho Chi Minh City) and Truong Thoai Vinh (born in 1994, residing in Can Tho City) for the crime of producing and trading counterfeit food products.
At the same time, the investigating agency has temporarily detained Truong Thoai Vinh and imposed a travel ban on Vu Thuy Trang due to her pregnancy.
According to the investigation documents, taking advantage of the increasing demand for ready-to-eat bird's nest, the suspects organized the production and sale of products under the brand names "Mina Nest" and "Old Nest" to gain illicit profits.
To expand her market, Vu Thuy Trang used 10 different Facebook fan pages, hired advertisers to run nationwide campaigns, and also directly filmed videos and livestreamed to introduce her products.
The advertisement portrays this as a premium bird's nest soup containing up to 70% bird's nest, aiming to build consumer trust.
Despite not having a business license for bird's nest products and not following the required self-declaration procedures, Trang still contacted external manufacturers to produce the products for only 6,000 to 9,000 VND per jar (70ml and 150ml).
Afterward, the suspect designed and printed the packaging and labels themselves and sold them on the market at prices many times higher.
In addition, Trang hired Truong Thoai Vinh to manage the business operations, participate in designing and printing product labels, and include information about fictitious manufacturing companies.
The suspects hired approximately 4-5 workers to perform tasks such as labeling, packaging, processing orders, and transporting products for sale nationwide.
Based on the documents and evidence collected, the Thanh Hoa Provincial Police Investigation Agency conducted an urgent search of the suspects' warehouse, seizing more than 70,000 jars of various types of bird's nest soup with a total weight of over 15 tons.
The case is currently under further investigation and expansion by the Police Investigation Agency.
