Exposing a series of counterfeit production and trading lines worth thousands of billions

Many large-scale counterfeit production and trading lines were destroyed, such as: Fire extinguishers, Lavie drinking water, "fake buffalo" Wagyu beef, fake stamps and environmental monitoring certificates... directly affecting public safety, health and consumer confidence.

On the afternoon of October 14, Hanoi City Police held a press conference to announce the initial investigation results of a number of prominent cases in the economic and environmental fields, with inter-provincial operations and revenues of up to thousands of billions of VND.

Conference scene.

Millions of poor quality Dragon fire extinguishers released into the market

Through professional work, Hanoi Police discovered a series of fire and explosion cases where fire extinguishers were ineffective. Verification showed that the Dragon brand fire extinguishers manufactured by Vietlink Company showed signs of being counterfeit and of poor quality.

The case file shows that Vietlink Production, Trade and Service Company has a factory located in the Hai Son Industrial Park expansion (Duc Hoa commune, Tay Ninh province), represented by Dang Quoc Hoang (born in 1974; residing at C14A - Thuan Viet Apartment, Phu Tho ward, Ho Chi Minh City). In addition, Hoang's wife, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (born in 1978), directly organizes and manages the production of Dragon brand fire extinguishers.

The subjects purchased production lines and raw materials from abroad, then manufactured them in Hanoi and Tay Ninh. Right from the beginning of operation, for profit, the subjects imported fire extinguishing powder raw materials with a very low fire extinguishing agent content, not ensuring quality and standards to produce fire extinguishers for the market.

From January 1, 2025, Vietlink Company has transferred production technology to An Phu Electricity and Lighting Joint Stock Company, with Phung Huu Loi (born in 1983, residing at An Phu Building - LK19A,B - Duong Noi Resettlement Area, Duong Noi Ward, Hanoi City) as the legal representative, manager and operator up to now.

Phung Huu Loi continued to cooperate with Hoang and his wife to produce fake fire extinguishers using the above method. The subjects distributed fake fire extinguishers to the market through two level 1 agents and gathered them at 7 locations in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Tay Ninh.

The results of the appraisal at the Institute of Criminal Science of the Ministry of Public Security determined that: The powder and fire extinguishers branded Dragon sent for appraisal were counterfeit. In which, the majority of the samples did not contain fire extinguishing agents (they did not contain the two main active ingredients that determine the fire extinguishing effectiveness: NH4H2P04, (NH4)2SO4).

From 2018 to present, Vietlink Production, Trade and Service Company has produced and sold about 3,000,000 fire extinguishers of all kinds on the market, with sales revenue of about 1,000 billion VND.

For An Phu Electricity and Lighting Joint Stock Company: From January 1, 2025 to now, it has produced and sold about 250,000 fire extinguishers of various types, with a revenue of about 100 billion VND. Searching the factories and warehouses of Vietllink Company, An Phu Company and related distributors in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Tay Ninh, the authorities discovered and temporarily seized 167,143 Dragon brand fire extinguishers of various types along with production lines and many related documents.

The investigation agency determined that the case showed signs of large-scale counterfeit production and trading, causing great damage to the state budget and fire prevention and fighting safety. Currently, the authorities are consolidating documents to initiate criminal proceedings for counterfeit production and trading, and prosecute the suspects; at the same time, investigate and clarify other related crimes.

Buffalo meat "transformed" into Wagyu beef

On September 19, Hanoi Police coordinated with Market Management to catch employees of HIDA Food Joint Stock Company (Hoai Duc commune, Hanoi) injecting marbling essence to turn buffalo meat into "Japanese Wagyu beef".

Tons of "dirty" food were promptly detected by authorities.

During the investigation, the authorities determined that: Taking advantage of people's consumption needs - liking to use Japanese WAGYU beef with fat marbling, Tran Hoang Phuoc (Director of SK FOODS VIET NAM Company) contacted Hida Company (with Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao as General Director) to order the production of fake beef. Thao bought buffalo meat (poor quality, imported from India) at a price of 120,000 VND/kg, then injected by-products to create marbling, packaged the product and labeled it as beef to sell on the market at a price of 400,000 VND - 600,000 VND/kg.

According to preliminary verification results, from May 2024 until being discovered and arrested, the subjects colluded to produce 14 tons of buffalo meat disguised as beef and consumed it in Hanoi, Da Nang, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City.

During the search at the locations, 65 tons of fake buffalo and beef meat and all the machinery used to process and produce fake goods were seized. In addition, 17 tons of refined powder used to inject into buffalo meat to create fat marbling, similar to imported WAGYU beef.

Conducting an examination at the National Testing Institute, it was concluded that 24/29 beef samples seized from Hida Company had buffalo DNA. In addition, the Investigation Agency is conducting an examination of the above refined powder to determine whether it contains toxins harmful to health or not?

On October 6, 2025, the Investigation Police Agency - Hanoi City Police issued a Decision to prosecute the criminal case: Production and trading of counterfeit food and foodstuffs and prosecuted the accused and issued a detention order for 4 subjects for the crime of Production and trading of counterfeit food and foodstuffs as prescribed in Article 193 of the Penal Code.

Lavie fake water from… tap water

On October 2, Hanoi Police inspected the water production workshop of Le Van Viet (born in 1988; residing in Long Bien ward, Hanoi), discovered and caught the subjects using a hose to pump tap water into Lavie bottles (prepared in advance), and seized more than 500 fake Lavie water bottles of various sizes, 19 liters and 18.5 liters.

"Fake" Lavie water at the time of inspection.

At the factory, Le Van Viet installed a production system, a heat-drying machine, a "date" stamping machine, plastic shrink wrap, Lavie water labels, cleaning chemicals... to serve the production of fake water. Lavie bottles were collected by the subjects floating in the area, then transported and gathered to the factory at the above location. Here, Le Van Viet directed Pham Tien Hung, Le Thi Cham and Ly Quoc Khanh to rinse, wash, clean and dry, then pump tap water directly into the bottles.

After producing fake Lavie water bottles, Le Van Viet would use trucks (small 1 ton to 1.25 tons) and regularly change the license plates on the trucks to transport fake Lavie water to 3 warehouses in the city, then mix the fake Lavie water bottles with genuine Lavie water bottles and transport them to sell to people, companies, agencies... to make illegal profits.

On average, every day, Le Van Viet and his accomplices produced and sold 100 bottles of Lavie water to the market, each bottle costing about 10,000 VND, and Viet sold it for nearly 70,000 VND/bottle. From March 2025 to the end of October 1, 2025, Le Van Viet sold about 20,000 fake Lavie water bottles to people in Hanoi.

Currently, the Investigation Police Agency - Hanoi Police has issued a Decision to prosecute a criminal case, prosecuting 4 defendants for the crime of "Production and trading of counterfeit food and foodstuffs", regulated in Article 193 of the Penal Code.

Currently, Hanoi Police are tracing the establishments that have consumed fake Lavie water of Le Van Viet in the past, and recovering many fake Lavie water bottles that have not been sold to the market.

Forgery in environmental monitoring work - selling fake stamps and certificates

Another case related to the environmental field was discovered when Nguyen Truong Giang, Director of Vietnam Environmental Industry Joint Stock Company, colluded with businesses to edit monitoring data, omitting measurements of toxic indicators to fake "standards".

Giang also colluded with Nguyen Hoai Nam, Director of Vitech Calibration Joint Stock Company, to sell more than 5,000 fake calibration stamps and certificates to production facilities in Hanoi, Bac Ninh and many other provinces and cities.

Hanoi police have initiated a case, prosecuted and detained four suspects for Forgery in work under Article 359 of the Penal Code, and are expanding the investigation into a nationwide network of fake stamps and documents.

Hanoi City Police affirmed that the above cases are all extremely serious, directly affecting the safety, health and interests of the people. The authorities are continuing to expand the investigation, hold responsible the related subjects and tighten market management, in order to protect the interests of consumers and ensure social order and safety.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/phap-luat/boc-tran-hang-loat-duong-day-san-xuat-buon-ban-hang-gia-quy-mo-nghin-ty-20251014142710305.htm