According to the initial investigation, this line was led by Le Van Viet (37 years old, residing in Long Bien ward, Hanoi). From March to early October 2025, Viet's group collected thousands of used Lavie bottles floating on the market. After that, the subjects used chemicals to clean the bottles, then directly injected untreated tap water to fake the product.
To "turn" fake goods into real ones, this group also uses many equipment such as heat-drying machines, production date stamping machines, plastic shrink wrap and fake Lavie labels, making the products almost impossible to distinguish with the naked eye.
Searching the factory in Phu Dong commune, the authorities seized more than 500 fake water bottles along with many equipment, materials, and labels related to counterfeiting activities.
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| Scene of making fake Lavie water. Photo: HB |
Investigation results show that in just over 6 months, this network has produced and sold about 20,000 fake Lavie water bottles to the market. Each bottle costs about 10,000 VND to produce, but is sold for nearly 70,000 VND/bottle, illegally earning hundreds of millions of VND.
Currently, the Hanoi Police Investigation Agency has initiated a case and prosecuted four suspects for the crime of “Producing and trading in counterfeit food and foodstuffs” under Article 193 of the Penal Code. At the same time, the authorities are expanding the investigation and tracing the sources of counterfeit product consumption in the city and neighboring provinces.
The incident shows the dangerous level of production and trade of fake drinking water, which not only causes damage to consumers and genuine businesses, but also directly threatens public health.