Massive counterfeit gasoline ring busted in Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu, company director arrested

Gia Khiêm Vũng Tàu petroleum retail store in Phú Mỹ in Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province. VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Police on Monday arrested the director of a company in the southern province of Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu for being involved in a massive fake gasoline ring in the province.

A native of Bến Tre Province, Võ Hoài Phương, 38, director of Gia Khiêm Transport Company, was apprehended last Saturday for producing and selling fake gasoline, according to the provincial Department of Public Security.

According to initial information from the police, the police last Saturday caught the company’s staff, Trần Văn Hiếu and Nguyễn Phúc Hoàng, pumping chemicals from a tanker truck into the gasoline tank of the company’s Gia Khiêm Vũng Tàu petroleum retail store in Hắc Dịch Ward in Phú Mỹ Town. 

According to the police, Phương had directed the tanker truck driver to transport more than 10 tonnes of chemicals used to make fake A95 fuel from a company in HCM City’s District 5 to the petroleum retail store. The fake fuel would later be transported and distributed to filling stations.

Police also managed to stop another tanker truck containing 20,000 litres of the fake gasoline pumped from the gas tank at the store and was about to be sold.

On the same evening of Monday, the police raided Phương’s house in HCM City and confiscated a large amount of chemicals used to make fake fuel and relevant documents.

According to the police, the suspects buy chemicals in bulk and then mix them with solvents with only a small amount of real A95 gasoline to make the fake fuel to sell to customers. 

The case is under further investigation. — VNS