'and from that smugglers entered the scene and were having a...

'and from that smugglers entered the scene and were having a great time while the rare earth prices were up in the sky,'

My thinking may be open to challenge but this is the problem I see in the smuggling.

I think the leverage is too great for smugglers to give up. The price difference (Export tax and VAT)makes this a no brainer for those who can drive a truck, pay off the customs dudes, and deliver to Vietnam and or Thailand. Take your pick from the REE, but a 20 ton truck of even CE yields about $60,000 profit. If this is split 50/50 with the receiving party it is still a years salary or more for most of the truckies. Or over $100,000 post the split for the high end value REEs.

What a great business to be in!

Data from Frontier web site sourced from Metal pages.