When officers raided a cold storage facility on the edge of Hanoi, they found 260 tons of frozen chicken feet that had passed their expiry date, turned white with mold and begun to smell, with signs they were about to be shipped to buyers. Some of the meat had rotted before it reached the trade.
The Hanoi City Police investigation agency has opened a criminal case against Nguyen Thi To Loan, 47, and Trang Tuyet Ngoc, 45, on suspicion of smuggling, and ordered both held in pre-trial detention.
Loan directs An Binh Import-Export and Trade Development Joint Stock Company, part of An Binh Group, and ran ABF Food Import-Export Joint Stock Company, the firm that brought in the chicken feet. Ngoc headed an assistants' department at the group.
Between 2023 and 2026, ABF imported 339 containers of chicken feet, about 12,000 tons valued at nearly VND350 billion (US$13.3 million), police said. The shipments came in under a customs regime meant for goods that are processed in Vietnam and then re-exported, which lets them enter free of import duty.
Instead of re-exporting the cargo or completing the paperwork to convert it for domestic sale, and without paying the taxes due, Loan directed Ngoc to sell more than 10,000 tons inside the country, investigators said.
