Information at the Workshop "Prevention of tobacco smuggling" organized by the Vietnam Consumer Protection Association in the morning of July 17, said Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Consumer Protection Association, according to the investigation globally, tobacco use among adults in Vietnam is over 45%, over time, the number of tobacco users is constantly increasing, especially among young people. Therefore, this is a good opportunity for those who smuggle cigarettes into Vietnam to benefit, making the front of the anti-smuggling industry in the country is always  "hot".

Mr. Nguyen Tien Dat, Deputy Director of the Professional Department - General Department of Market Management (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that depending on the time, each region, sometimes, there are places, transport, storage and trading activities. The sale of smuggled cigarettes is quite complicated with many sophisticated tricks. This activity mainly takes place in provinces and cities: Long An, An Giang, Kien Giang, Tay Ninh and Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Hai Phong and etc.

In particular, the southwest border area is a key area for smuggling cigarettes; area of Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi are the largest areas of smuggled and imported cigarettes; The border area of Quang Tri province is a key area for smuggling drugs on the Vietnam-Laos border. The smuggled imported cigarettes are mainly branded Jet, Hero, 555, Elephant, Nelson, Scott, Esse and etc. It is estimated that, on average, the amount of cigarettes smuggled through border provinces is about 400 thousand to 500 thousand bags of all kinds.

Typically, the largest cigarette smuggling case at sea, ever investigated by the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department (General Department of Customs) on March 19, 2020 on board CHUNG CHING, Palau nationality in the North sea  is illegally emitting cigarettes into high-speed canoes to smuggle them into domestic consumption. At the time of checking, there were 22 foreign crew members aboard the ship, about 8,549 packages (equivalent to nearly 4.3 million packs of foreign cigarettes), cigarette packs of three types including 555, ESSI , YUXI and etc. Hence, seeing the mode of transport and trade of smuggled cigarettes in the direction of increasing sophistication, dynamism and recklessness, though not organized into scale and lines, the tricks work quite complex.

In particular, in the recent time, taking advantage of the country to prevent and combat Covid-19 epidemic, cigarette smuggling on the borderline took place very complicated. The smugglers use sophisticated tactics, ready to oppose, attack functional forces when detected and arrested. More seriously, cross-border cigarette smuggling poses a very high risk of spreading the outbreak of Covid-19 virus from abroad to inland.