Customs officers in the northern city of Hai Phong seize ivory illegally trafficked from Tanzania. Over 2,200 smuggling violations were discovered by the General Administration of Customs within a one-month period. — VNA/VNS Photo Pham Hau

Statistics from the administration show that the number of violations is 388 cases higher than that of the previous period.

Noticeable is that the situation of trafficking wild animals and importing substandard goods beyond borders are complicated.

Under assessments from local customs departments, the smuggling tricks are more and more sophisticated.

The smugglers took advantage of the weaknesses of regulations on temporary import for re-export to violate customs procedures.

The HCM City Customs Department seized on April 4 a container carrying 66 horns weighing 282 kilos suspected to be ivory; two kilos of scales suspected to be pangolin and a tail suspected to be of an elephant.

Previously, the container was said to have carried soya beans.

The central Nghe An Province Customs Department confiscated 48 kilos of firecrackers and four legs of wild bears in late March.

In April, customs teams also discovered many cases of imported substandard goods in localities.

Around 2,500 kilos of chicken, worth VND87.5 million ($4,200), were illegally imported from China and seized by the local customs team in northeastern Quang Ninh Province in early April.

Mountainous Lang Son Province Customs confiscated two containers carrying over 2,700 boxes of frozen chicken meat on April 3.

To bring the situation under control, the administration has ordered its units to tighten inspections from now until the end of this year.

Local customs departments have to promptly report on new tricks of smugglers to the administration in order to build measures to cope with these.

The administration also required local customs departments to pay more attention in dealing with cheating on customs declarations or faking customs procedures.