Naval guards under the Vietnam Border Defence Force practice climbing a flag pole to fight oil smuggling container ships. — Photo thanhnien.vnMaritime smuggling has been apressing issue in Vietnam in recent years. Some 2,700 suspects were seized in2016 for illegal trading, with some 415 billion VND (18 million USD)confiscated, according to the Vietnam Border Defence Force’s drugs and crimeprevention statistics.
Oil is one of the most frequentlysmuggled goods at sea. It is often delivered from Cambodia, Thailand, theDominican Republic, Mongolia, Malaysia and China to the waters off the centralprovinces of Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, and Phu Yen and the southern province of BaRia-Vung Tau.
Seizing oil smuggling ships requires coordinated efforts from naval guards bothat sea and on the mainland. At 9pm on June 8, right when the fishing vessel KH94545 TS started sailing off the Da Bac fishing port in Khanh Hoa province’sCam Ranh district, Lieutenant Truong Quang Hoc – disguised as a fisherman –picked up the phone and announced to his team: “Target’s moving.”
When the vessel reached the middle of the sea, it was approached by a smallerpatrol ship. Two border guards and one anti-smuggling customs official jumpedfrom the ship to the vessel, seizing 48,000 litres of illegally-traded dieseloil.
Similar vessels, which often goundercover as seafood trading vessels, have become the “traces” that navalguards follow to track the whereabouts of foreign oil smuggling container shipsin the waters of the central region.
These container ships, carrying somemillions of tonnes of oil, often wait until there are storms and big waves toenter Vietnam. The naval patrol ships cannot rival container ships that weighthousand tonnes and are designed to endure extreme weather.
Understanding their disadvantage,Vietnamese naval guards are prepared to risk it all when encountering thosecontainers. On the night of December 4, 2016, a naval guard patrol shipapproached the Dominican container ship Swift in the waters off the centralprovince of Phu Yen under heavy rain and strong winds.
Carrying some 4,300 tonnes (5.9 million litres) of RON92 oil, Swift wasa mobile oil vendor, running near the coasts at 1.8km per hour and contactingsmaller ships to sell oil right on the sea.
As the patrol ship headed towards the container ship and signaled for it tostop, Swift sailors thought the vessel wanted to buy oil. But as soon asthey saw the words Border Guard painted on the side of the ship, theyaccelerated in an attempt to run away, creating big waves that slapped against thepatrol boat, which was only 22m long and 4.5m high (from its deck to the top ofits flag pole).
As their patrol ship swungviolently, naval guards found it hard to maintain balance and climb over thecontainer ship. They decided to climb the flagpole and jumped from there.
Commander Bui Dinh Quang swung an AK 47 over his shoulders, climbed up the polewith his teammates and clung onto it for dear life as a naval leader shoutedthrough his walkie-talkie from mainland: “Only jump when it’s safe!”
When the two ships crashed againsteach other and made a shrieking sound, all the officers jumped from the top oftheir flagpole to the Swift to the amazement of its sailors.
The officers then seized all the smuggled oil.
“There are all kinds of odds we faceon our sea-guarding missions,” said Commodore Pham Van Thuy, captain of thenaval squadron 48 under the Vietnam Border Defence Force. “But our minds aremade up: we will do everything to fight smuggling and protect our sea,” hesaid.-VNS/VNA
VNA
