Ho Chi Minh City police bust banned-substance pig fattening ring, 10,000 tonnes of tainted pork sold

Seven of the suspects were prosecuted for violating food safety regulations, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Public Security said on Monday.

They are Nguyen Van Hieu, 41, Nguyen Huynh Thach Thao, 37, Nguyen Thi Anh, 41, Dong Thi Bay, 47, Nguyen Van Huy, 51, Pham Van Hung, 50, and Nguyen Thanh Tin, 45.

Hieu was additionally prosecuted for giving bribes.

Among the two other suspects, Nguyen Thi Trinh Nu, 37, was prosecuted for trading banned goods, while Vo Quoc Son, 37, faced prosecution for taking bribes, police said.

The ring was found to involve pig farms and other facilities in several localities, with Ho Chi Minh City serving as the main market for the pork, according to police.

Earlier in late July, local police and the municipal Department of Agriculture and Environment inspected three trucks carrying 280 pigs and found that all of them tested positive for salbutamol, a banned substance used in livestock farming.

Eighty of the pigs also tested positive for African swine fever.

The investigation was subsequently expanded, with police conducting emergency searches at 14 farms and residences in neighboring Dong Nai City linked to the use of banned substances in pig farming.

At several farms and collection facilities, police found 3,909 pigs with a combined weight of more than 500 tonnes that tested positive for salbutamol.

The pigs were later handled and destroyed by the authorities.

Investigators estimated that the ring had released more than 10,000 tonnes of pork contaminated with salbutamol onto the market.

During the searches, investigators seized more than one metric ton of salbutamol, police said.

The seized substance could have been mixed into more than 3,000 metric tons of animal feed for use in fattening pigs, according to the investigation.

Investigators determined that Nu had supplied the salbutamol used in the operation.

Around mid-2025, Nu introduced a feed additive that she claimed could make pigs look better, produce firmer meat, and increase lean meat content.

She told farmers that the product was sourced from Thailand and Cambodia and sold it for VND375,000 (US$14.4) per kilogram, police said.

The substance was mixed with animal feed at a ratio of 100 grams of salbutamol to 300 kilograms of feed, with each batch used to feed 100 pigs, according to the investigation.

On average, 100 pigs consumed about three kilograms of the banned substance during each farming cycle, police said.

The farmers bought live pigs weighing about 100-110 kilograms and raised them to around 130-140 kilograms over approximately 30 days before selling them on the market.

To conceal the use of the banned substance, the farmers stopped giving it to the pigs about 10 days before sending them to slaughterhouses, according to police.

The pigs were then given liver-detoxification medication or bio-electrolytes in an attempt to make them test negative for the banned substance when inspected by authorities.

Investigators are continuing to expand their probe to clarify the full extent of the ring, identify other people involved and find out those who consumed or distributed the pork for further legal action.

Police warned pig farmers not to use banned lean-meat-enhancing substances to increase pigs' weight or lean meat content.

They also urged farms and slaughterhouses to verify the origin of pigs and strengthen testing for banned-substance residues. 

Slaughterhouses and traders should not process or sell pigs suspected of having been given banned substances before their origin and safety are clarified.

Police further advised supermarkets, wholesale markets and vendors not to buy or sell pork of unknown origin for profit, and urged consumers to choose pork with clear origins from controlled retailers.