Vietnam's customs found two local men carried some 1,500 diamonds without declaration on a flight from China's Hong Kong to southern Ho Chi Minh City, according to local media on Monday.

Searching the luggage of two men, Nguyen Huy Tai, 40, and Tran Binh Tam, 66, at the city-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport on Sept. 22, customs officers found 428 diamonds totaling some 150, 330 U.S. dollars in one luggage, and over 1,000 diamonds in the other, Youth newspaper said.

The diamonds were well hidden in reading lamps and suitcases. The two men and the diamonds are now under investigation of local police.

Earlier, Vietnamese police found that a Taiwanese businessman smuggled 15,411 diamonds worth over 1.3 million dollars, which were hidden in his luggage, into Ho Chi Minh City from March to September 2004.

Some 200 million dollars worth of diamonds are estimated to be annually smuggled into Vietnam, which imposes an import tax of one percent and a value-added tax of 10 percent on the gem, according to local gold and gem traders.

Source: Xinhua