Cambodian livestock smuggling - a daily affair in Long An

Long An border guards with cows smuggled from Cambodia. Smuggling cows is on the rise as people seek to take advantage of higher cow prices in Vietnam. Border guards in the Mekong Delta province of Long An have their hands full dealing with a rush of livestock smuggling from across the Cambodian border.

Long An border guards said they had seized more than 130 cows and buffalo being smuggled into the province from Cambodia since July. Smugglers can sell the animals in Vietnam for double what they paid in Cambodia. “Smugglers often hire people to take livestock across the border and they often flee after dropping off the animals,” said Le Hong Truong, an official from the provincial border guard. Last Wednesday, Border Post 865 guards seized nine allegedly-smuggled buffalos in Duc Hue District’s My Quy Tay Commune. But the suspected smugglers escaped. Truong said some smugglers in Cambodia report their livestock missing and ask for them to be returned when confiscated by Vietnamese authorities. On September 23, officials from Long An’s Border Post 893 seized 29 cows in Tan Hung District. Sann Sa Ra from Kampong Trabaek District in Cambodia’s Prey Veng Province, then tried to reclaim 17 of the cows, saying they had accidentally followed some of his other cattle being sold legally to a local in Tan Hung District. On September 18, guards at Border Post 885 seized 48 cows being smuggled by three people in Vinh Hung District. The two arrestees, Tran Van Quang and Truong Van Cong from Vinh Hung’s Thai Binh Trung Commune, said they had been hired by Tran Van Chien to smuggle the animals for VND100,000 (US$6) per person. A subsequent investigation revealed Chien had been hired to smuggle the cows by a Cambodian named Nguon Penh. Chien confessed to smuggling nearly 200 cows into Vietnam for Penh in a one-month period. Border guards also found fake veterinary certifications of 49 cows being carried through Long An’s Binh Hiep Border Gate on July 8. Investigators said the cows had been carried from Thailand into Cambodia before reaching Vietnam. Reported by Tan Tu