HCMC – Nguyen Thi Kim Hanh, 53, also known as Muoi Tuong, a smuggling tycoon in An Phu District of the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, was sentenced to eight years in prison for illegally transporting US$470,000 from Cambodia to Vietnam on June 24, 2019.
She was also fined VND50 million, the local media reported.
The An Giang People’s Court also handed down a jail term of four years each to Pham Thanh Sang, Ho Tuan Linh, Nguyen Van Le and Nguyen Van Minh, all residing in An Phu District.
According to the indictment, the border guards of An Giang Province on June 24, 2019, patrolled the border area in Vinh Nguon Ward, Chau Doc City, and detected four people traveling to Vietnam from Cambodia. When the border guards checked their identity papers, they immediately left a bag containing US$470,000 and their vehicle to flee to Cambodia, so the border guards seized the vehicle and the money for an investigation.
Sang and Linh later gave themselves in to the police. In October 2020, Le and Minh were arrested in another case and they admitted transporting US$470,000 with Sang and Minh.
All of the four said Muoi Tuong was the mastermind behind the case. She hired them to transport the money across the border.
Muoi Tuong has been prosecuted in six cases: helping others go abroad illegally and smuggling refined sugar in 2018, smuggling 51 kilograms of gold in 2020, illegally transporting US$470,000 across the border in 2019, illegally transporting US$200,000 across the border in 2020 and laundering money in 2021.
The case involving the illegal transport of US$470,000 across the border is Muoi Tuong’s first case put up for trial.
