Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2007
Source: Vietnam News (Vietnam)
Copyright: 2007 Viet Nam News, Vietnam News Agency
Contact:  http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3935

POLICE CRACKDOWN NETS 5,500 SUSPECTED DRUG TRAFFICKERS

HA NOI -- Over 3,800 drug cases were brought to trial in Viet Nam in 
the first five months of this year during what officials call the 
biggest crackdown on drug smuggling and trafficking in recent years.

The police's aggressive zero tolerance policy resulted in the arrest 
of 5,500 suspects and the confiscation of 300kg of heroin and opium 
along with 20,000 ecstasy pills.

Police have said that they are increasingly targeting drug runners 
that utilise remote border crossings to smuggle contraband into the 
country. A ring that was disbanded in late May exemplified this 
approach. The group, police said, was working with criminal 
syndicates from overseas to transport heroin into the southwestern 
border province of Long An from the Golden Triangle via Cambodia.

On June 18, units from the northern border province of Quang Ninh 
broke up a trans-regional group that plied its trade in Laos and 
China. Ringleader, Can Viet Phuong, and his 34 accomplices were 
caught in possession of 1.7 kg of heroin, eight guns, explosives and 
illegally gained properties worth in excess of VND1 billion.

Another northern syndicate that controlled a vast mountainous region 
for supply and a network that stretched from Ha Noi to HCM City saw 
42 of its members prosecuted and over 24 kg of heroin confiscated.

However, narcotics squads in HCM City have warned that drug 
syndicates are becoming increasingly sophisticated as they look for 
new means of delivery by air, sea and post along routes that involve 
Australia and Taiwan.

A Vietnamese Australian, Nguyen Tuan Khanh, and 35 others were 
recently arrested with 2,765 ecstasy tabs in part of a round up that 
lasted six months and netted 1,511 suspects in 511 separate cases.

Most of the major cases involved growing links with criminals from 
abroad, highlighting the increasingly complicated situation in Viet 
Nam and the region as a whole, police said.

In a clear message to drug dealers operating in the country a court 
from the northern mountainous province of Son La on June 14 handed 
out death sentences to seven defendants who were members of a 
trans-national drug-trafficking gang led by Trinh Nguyen Thuy. -- VNS
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom