'Many officials were bribed by the fake gasoline production gang'
According to Dong Nai Police Director Vu Hong Van, many anti-smuggling officers were bribed by the fake gasoline production group Phan Thanh Huu to protect them for a long time.
Information about the production line of 200 million liters of fake gasoline by Mr.Phan Thanh Huu(64 years old, in Ho Chi Minh City) and Nguyen Huu Tu (64 years old, from Vinh Long) were the leaders, Major General Vu Hong Van said at theNational conference of internal affairs agencies to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress,September 15
This is a case that the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption has put under monitoring and direction.
According to Mr. Van, in the first phase of the project, Dong Nai Provincial Police prosecuted more than 70 people and are coordinating with the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of National Defense to investigate 13 defendants under the authority of this agency.
To operate on a large scale, this gang bribed many people in the anti-crime and anti-smuggling agencies at sea in many regions and provinces. From there, these officials protected and covered up the smuggling and fake gasoline ring. "More than 200 million liters of fake, poor-quality gasoline were put on the market by this group, illegally earning thousands of billions of dong," said Mr. Van.
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| Major General Vu Hong Van at the Dong Nai Provincial Party Committee meeting in early September. Photo: Phuoc Tuan |
Dong Nai police discovered a smuggling and production ring.fake gasolinelarge scale after people reported buying poor quality gasoline. The investigation determined that this gang had established many companies to transport and trade gasoline as a front; rented warehouses along the river routes and invested in building modern facilities... to serve the crime.
Major General Van said that this gang bought ocean-going ships with a capacity of 3,000-5,000 tons, traded in smuggled and fake gasoline from abroad, and then transported it to buoy number 0. Here, the staff would use chemicals and color powder to mix fake gasoline RON A95, then transport it to a floating dock in the middle of the Hau River in Vinh Long province for assembly.
From this floating dock, smuggled and fake gasoline is pumped through ships to warehouses along the rivers and then supplied to tank trucks for consumption in the southern provinces.
On the evening of February 6, with the support of the Criminal Police Department (C02, Ministry of Public Security) more than500 scoutsfrom many directions suddenly raided the floating dock in the middle of Hau River, catching many people red-handed mixing fake gasoline. At the same time, 13 other locations in Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, Ba Ria - Vung Tau... were also searched, a series of related people were arrested. Expanding the case, Dong Nai Police prosecuted more than 70 defendants, seized many related documents and exhibits, dozens of gas stations and warehouses were sealed.
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| Major General Van (third from left) directs the search at Van Truc Trading and Service Company Limited, Binh Duong in March. Photo: Thai Ha |
In March, Major General To An Xo (Chief of the Office of the Ministry of Public Security) said that the case encountered many difficulties in solving because there were many individuals "protecting" the case. The criminals used many tricks such as destroying evidence, opposing the investigation agency, or giving bribes with different tricks.
"For example, bribery does not require direct meetings but a dead-box point is established. Every month, one person brings a lump sum of money and another person receives it, or they use a connected account, one person opens an account, the other can withdraw money...", Mr. Xo said.
Due to the particularly serious and complicated nature of the case, Dong Nai Police have not yet completed the investigation.
