Earlier on the evening of July 25, An Giang police raided a boat travelling from Cambodia to the province's Long Binh District.
The only crew on the boat escaped and swam back to Cambodia, leaving several packages on board, in which police found 19 kilos of gold.
The next day, two men aged 60 and 22 turned themselves in and admitted they had smuggled the gold from Cambodia to Vietnam to sell at local shops in An Giang.
Through investigation, police called for the boatman, Nguyen Tan Phong, to turn himself in. Phong, 45, then returned to Vietnam and gave himself to the police on July 27. He said that he was hired by a man from Cambodia to transport the packages to Vietnam.
Police are still investigating the case.
Cambodia and Vietnam share a border of 1,158 km in length. Illegal gold smuggling has become a problem in the area.
