HANOI, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam recorded 88,564 cases of smuggling, trade frauds and counterfeit goods in the first half of this year, seeing a year-on-year drop of 6.3 percent, the government said on Monday.
In the six-month period, Vietnam also collected nearly 7,950 billion Vietnamese dong (352 million U.S. dollars) from administrative fines, confiscated goods sales, and tax arrears, up 40.4 percent, the country's National Steering Committee on Prevention and Control of Smuggling, Trade Fraud and Fake Commodities said.
Meanwhile, the country's different forces prosecuted 1,189 cases which involved 1,372 individuals. The police force alone prosecuted 423 cases which involved 552 people.
According to the committee, most of smuggled items were essential consumer goods, and heavily taxed or banned products, such as alcohol, beer, cigarette, beverage, fertilizer, pesticide, cosmetics, petrol, elephant tusk and rhino horn.