Hanoi City Police announced on 25/3 that they are continuing to investigate three officials from the Hanoi Sub-department of Livestock, Fisheries, and Veterinary Medicine for abuse of position and authority to appropriate property. The officials are Le Ngoc Anh, 52, head of the Diagnosis, Testing, and Slaughter Control Center, along with two subordinates, Nguyen Phong Nam, 43, and Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, 42.

The case unfolded at the Van Phuc concentrated livestock slaughter facility, part of Thinh An Food Logistics Joint Stock Company. This facility has been operating since 10/2011.

The slaughter facility is located in Van Phuc commune, former Thanh Tri district. *Photo: Linh Dan*

To oversee and manage the facility's slaughter operations, the Hanoi Sub-department of Livestock, Fisheries, and Veterinary Medicine, under the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, assigned officials to form the Van Phuc Slaughter Control Team, stationed at the facility.

Nam and Lan served as deputy team leaders, overseeing 23 officials divided into three shifts to ensure round-the-clock coverage. According to regulations, traders transporting pigs to slaughterhouse owners daily must present quarantine certificates or documents proving the pigs' origin.

After verifying documents and clinically examining the pigs, control officials would allow them to be transported for slaughter if all conditions were met. Following slaughter, officials would inspect the heads, offal, kidneys, and meat. If no abnormalities were found and veterinary hygiene standards were met, officials would "stamp for slaughter control," allowing the meat to be transported to the market.

The group of defendants indicted. *Photo: Hanoi Police*

Despite the supposedly strict process, police reported that defendants Nam and Lan abused their positions and authority to illegally collect money, appropriating property from slaughterhouse owners and drivers. This group also falsified quarantine records and documents, bypassing mandatory control steps, thereby allowing sick pigs and even dead pigs to be slaughtered.

Nam and Lan arbitrarily imposed disease control regulations for pigs weighing under 80 kg that were suspected of infection or prolonged illness. This tactic created difficulties or prevented traders from bringing their pigs into the facility. Consequently, traders were forced to pay between 250,000 and 500,000 Vietnamese dong (VND) per trip. In some cases, payments of 3 to 4 million VND were required to pass the control booth.

Furthermore, Nam and Lan demanded that some slaughterhouse owners renting space at the Van Phuc facility pay 5 to 10 million VND per month to avoid harassment. Following Nam's directives, employees collected the money and handed it over to Lan for tracking and management in a notebook. At the end of each month, Nam, Lan, and Ngoc Anh divided the collected funds. Authorities have not yet disclosed the total amount of money involved.

Inside Cuong Phat Food facility, currently suspended. *Photo: Linh Dan*

The case came to light on 17/3 when the Economic Police Department of Hanoi City Police inspected pig slaughtering operations at Nguyen Thi Hien's slaughterhouse within the Van Phuc concentrated livestock slaughter facility. The inspection team discovered Hien was slaughtering pigs infected with African swine fever, which, by regulation, should have been culled.

Hien's group had established a closed network, from collecting pigs in Phu Tho and Tuyen Quang provinces to transporting them to Hanoi. From early 2026 until now, this group had sold approximately 3,600 sick pigs, equivalent to nearly 300 tons of meat. This "tainted" meat was then distributed to wholesale and local markets and sold to Cuong Phat Food Co., Ltd., which supplied food to several schools in Hanoi.

Following these violations, Hien, 31, along with Do Van Thanh, Nguyen Thi Binh, and Nguyen Van Thanh, director of Cuong Phat Food Co., Ltd., were indicted for violating food safety regulations. In the same case, police also indicted Vu Kim Tuan, 53, an official from the Phu Tho Province Sub-department of Livestock, Fisheries, and Veterinary Medicine, for falsifying documents in public service.

In response to this case, Hanoi is requiring over 2,900 schools to review their food and ingredient suppliers for semi-boarding meals.