On 29/3, the Environmental Crime Prevention and Control Department (C05) of the Ministry of Public Security announced that, in collaboration with the Ministry's Investigation Police Agency Office, it has initiated legal proceedings against 74 defendants facing 10 distinct charges in various ongoing cases.

These individuals include officials and leaders from state environmental management agencies, as well as representatives from 59 businesses across the country involved in waste discharge and the installation of monitoring equipment.

During searches of over 300 environmental monitoring stations at various waste sources, police found nearly 160 stations with manipulated data. Factories faced production halts when pollution indicators exceeded permissible limits, triggering red alerts. Consequently, businesses resorted to various methods to ensure their readings remained within acceptable thresholds.

Seized equipment. *Photo: VTV*

Police reported that monitoring equipment is installed in companies discharging wastewater and other waste sources for supervisory purposes. Despite being sealed and equipped with dedicated surveillance cameras, hundreds of environmental monitoring stations were found to have their results altered, with some even subjected to remote manipulation.

Thermal power plants in Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, and Thai Binh 2, alongside aluminum and steel companies and environmental firms emitting exhaust and waste, were all found to have manipulated their pollution indices. Data transmitted to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, the overseeing agency, was consistently altered from "exceeding limits" to "within permissible thresholds."