The journey of dismantling the line
Through the investigation, the Economic Police Department (Hanoi City Police) discovered that Nguyen Tuan Linh (born in 1987, residing in Cong Vi, Ba Dinh, Hanoi) and his accomplices had signs of violating the law in the import and trading of N2O gas at DCMC Vietnam Trading Company Limited (DCMC Company, located in Phu Do, Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi). The Economic Police Department reported to the City Police leaders and coordinated with professional units of the Ministry of Public Security and the City Police to synchronously carry out professional measures to combat and neutralize.
On November 7, 2024, Hanoi City Police coordinated with professional units of the Ministry of Public Security to simultaneously summon 26 subjects and urgently search 08 locations, seizing many documents and exhibits, including: 129.3 tons of N2O gas raw materials; 14 systems of machinery and equipment for gas extraction; 02 gas pumps; 610kg of N2O gas pellets; 71,668 finished gas bottles; 6,586 gas cylinder shells; 50kg of balloon shells; many mobile phones, personal computers... Temporarily seizing 23.17 billion VND and 9,300 USD related to criminal activities.
Based on the investigation documents, the Hanoi City Police Department determined that Nguyen Tuan Linh discussed with Pham Minh Giang (born in 1986, residing in Ngoc Khanh, Ba Dinh, Hanoi), Dang Huy Hien (born in 1983, residing in Tho Quan, Dong Da, Hanoi), Chu Bich Ngoc (born in 1986, residing in Tuong Mai, Hoang Mai, Hanoi) to establish DCMC Company and Tam Moc Company (address at 17th Floor, Prime Center Building, 53 Quang Trung, Nguyen Du, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi; gas filling plant in Tan Tien, Van Giang, Hung Yen), with the purpose of importing N2O gas from abroad to Vietnam to resell to a number of businesses and then consume it to subjects, business establishments of bars, pubs, dance clubs...
DCMC Company is directed by Hoang Bui Khanh (born in 1985, residing in Phu Do ward, Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi) from 2019 to November 2022; Dang Huy Hien from December 2022 to March 2024 and Pham Minh Giang from March 2024 to present.
From 2019 to November 6, 2024, DCMC Company opened 364 import declarations of N2O gas declared as food additives (total volume of 7,338 tons of N2O gas; value of 5,282,814 USD equivalent to about 126.8 billion VND). Then, hired transportation to Tam Moc Company's warehouse in Hung Yen or DCMC Company's warehouse in Bac Ninh.
The imported N2O gas was mainly sold by DCMC Company to Royal Gas Company Limited (Royal Gas Company, headquartered in Dong Hai 2, Hai An, Hai Phong. This company later changed its name to Song Bien Clean Food Company Limited) through Nguyen Thi Hien (born in 1976, residing in Cau Dat, Ngo Quyen, Hai Phong) and Nguyen Luong Ha (born in 1984, residing in Moc Chau, Son La). Ha is the Director of Royal Gas Company, currently serving a sentence at Xuan Nguyen Prison - Ministry of Public Security and is a subject with an International Arrest Warrant from the Czech Police for the act of producing drugs and psychotropic substances).
In addition, N20 gas is also sold to Tan Loc Import-Export Trading Service Production Company Limited (Tan Loc Company, headquartered in Thanh Loc, District 12, Ho Chi Minh City).
The selling price of N2O gas of DCMC Company to Royal Gas Company and Tan Loc Company is about 60,000 - 130,000 VND/kg, but the selling price is only recorded at 20,000 - 30,000 VND/kg in the economic contract and only invoices a part of the quantity of goods sold to conceal revenue.
After purchasing N2O gas from DCMC Company, Royal Gas Company and Tan Loc Company decanted N2O gas and resold it to a number of individual customers for consumption in dance clubs, bars, pubs, karaoke... to serve the entertainment purposes (laughing gas) of young people.
Issue fake invoices to legalize
Based on collected evidence, the City Police Department determined that from 2022 to present, DCMC Company has declared to customs the import of about 6,190 tons of N2O gas, worth about 108.3 billion VND for the purpose of use in the food sector (as an additive).
However, DCMC Company did not comply with the declaration, only used a small amount for food production and trading purposes and sold about 4,327 tons (over 70% of the total amount of imported N2O gas) to Royal Gas Company and Tan Loc Company and legalized it by issuing fake sales invoices to individual customers who had no business relationship with DCMC Company.
The remaining gas was resold by DCMC to a number of foreign enterprises. At the same time, in fact, Royal Gas and Tan Loc paid DCMC about 260 billion VND, but DCMC only declared taxes for about 115.13 billion VND, the remaining amount was left off the books and not declared for taxes. It is estimated that in 02 years (2022 and 2023), the subjects caused a loss to the State of about 23.73 billion VND.
Taking advantage of the open policy of the law declaring the import of N2O gas as a food additive, the subjects organized a network to smuggle thousands of tons of N2O from abroad to Vietnam for entertainment purposes over a long period of time, illegally earning an especially large amount of money, causing no small consequences for today's youth.
The subjects used many sophisticated tricks, concealed and destroyed important documents to prove their crimes in order to deal with the authorities.
However, with the spirit of proactively attacking and suppressing crime, high determination, and unanimity under the direction of the Ministry of Public Security's leadership, the coordination of the professional departments and the City Police has uncovered, destroyed, and arrested the masterminds of the network, cutting off the supply of N2O gas into the country in accordance with the direction of the Ministry of Public Security's leadership "capture the whole network, not the middle", "make one case to warn the whole region, the whole field".
On November 19, 2024, the Hanoi City Police Investigation Agency issued a Decision to prosecute Nguyen Tuan Linh, Pham Minh Giang, and Dang Huy Hien for the crimes of Smuggling and Violating accounting regulations causing serious consequences; Chu Bich Ngoc and Nguyen Thi Hien for the crime of Violating accounting regulations causing serious consequences; and Hoang Bui Khanh for the crime of Smuggling.
The decisions have been approved by the Hanoi People's Procuracy. According to the authorities, this is a wake-up call for all businesses nationwide operating in the chemical business sector that have, are, and will intend to take advantage of loopholes in the state's legal policies in importing N2O gas to commit crimes with the aim of illegally trading N2O gas for illegal profits.
Currently, the Hanoi City Police Investigation Agency is continuing to investigate and expand the case to strictly handle it according to the law.
