According to the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department, officers coordinated with Saigon Port Customs officials and related agencies to strengthen inspections of suspicious shipments at Cat Lai Port, uncovering several serious violations.
On April 24, customs officers inspected a cosmetics shipment imported by a company and discovered that all 14,550 bottles of Dr Wonjin skincare toner, each with a volume of 750ml and originating from South Korea, had expired nearly a year earlier.
The company had declared the products as brand-new goods transported from Hong Kong to Cat Lai Port.
The expired cosmetics shipment (Photo: Customs Department).
However, physical inspection showed the expiry date printed on both the packaging and cartons was August 16, 2025.
In a separate case, authorities discovered 1,440 counterfeit lock products bearing the Solex trademark in another imported shipment.
During inspection of the imported lock consignment, customs officers found five undeclared product categories containing a total of 15,790 lock products that had not been reported to customs authorities.
Among them were 1,440 suspected counterfeit Solex locks.
On April 10, the National Office of Intellectual Property confirmed through an expert assessment that the products were counterfeit goods infringing Solex intellectual property rights.
On April 23, anti-smuggling officers also inspected a transit shipment travelling from Cat Lai Port to Cambodia and uncovered more than 3,000 counterfeit products imitating internationally protected brands registered in Vietnam.
The seized goods included 450 footballs labelled Mikasa FT-5, 560 Mikasa MG MV200 volleyballs, 90 Spiderman role-play toy sets, 780 children’s footballs featuring Spiderman themes, 700 Avengers racing toy sets and multiple Lego Ninjago products.
Representatives of the trademark owners in Vietnam confirmed that all of the products were counterfeit.
The Anti-Smuggling Control Team said it was continuing to coordinate with relevant agencies to investigate and handle the cases in accordance with the law.