HCMC's economic police contribute positively to maintaining local order and security

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In 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic made people's lives difficult and many businesses stop their operations. This fact posed potential risks, and big challenges to the security order situation, and triggered kinds of economic crimes.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel Pham Van Thanh, Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Division for Corruption, Smuggling and Economics Crimes stated that there were two kinds of crime emerging in Ho Chi Minh City in 2020. The first one related to criminal groups that took advantage of the COVID 19 situation to manufacture fake medical products while the second one involved fraud and illegal appropriation in real estate transaction.

Photo for illustration.

In terms of the first kind of crime, the Police Division for Corruption, Smuggling and Economics Crimes discovered 31 cases of manufacturing and trading fake medical products worth over 321 billion VND. The police force also prosecuted 5 cases and 7 defendants for the charges "fraud and illegal appropriation of property", "producing and trading fake goods" and "Smuggling". 

Regarding crimes in real estate, as of November 2020, the Police Division for Corruption, Smuggling and Economics Crimes investigated 98 cases, prosecuted 26 cases and 50 defendants for their total illegal appropriation of 4,108 billion VND.

According to a leader of the Police Division for Corruption, Smuggling and Economics Crimes, the soldiers of the unit exerted all-out effort during last year to actively grasp the local security situation, made precise prediction on trends of crime; As a result, it drew up appropriate plans to prevent and fight emerging crimes.

Thanks to the force’s effort, the number of cases related to economic crimes decreased by 21.7% in the number of cases and by 18.2% in the number of people involved in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

With its outstanding achievements in 2020, the Police Division for Corruption, Smuggling and Economics Crimes under the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department received dozens of certificates of merit from the Vietnamese Prime Minister, the Ministry of Public Security and local authorities at all levels.