Vietnam investigates ring that transports tons of heroin
21/5/2007 16:29
Vietnam is investigating a drug trafficking ring with involvement of
nearly 100 people, which has transported tons of heroin across Vietnam in five
years, according to local newspapers today. Between 2002 and late 2006, the
ring led by a 28-year-old local woman named Nguyen Thi Thom from Vietnam's Hanoi
capital and a 51- year-old man named Nguyen Luong Dan from northern Bac Giang
province "traded and transported tons of heroin and other lab- made drugs" in
Hanoi capital, some northern and southern localities, including Ho Chi Minh
City, the Young People newspaper quoted Tran Quang Trong, head of the Drug Crime
Investigation Bureau under the Hanoi Police Department, as saying. Ring
members used their own or rented cars to transport heroin from northwestern
provinces like Son La to Hanoi and such other northern localities as Lang Son
border province, and transport lab- made drugs, including many new kinds
unlisted in management categories of Vietnam and other countries, from
southwestern border provinces to Ho Chi Minh City, he said. Between March and
December 2006, local police detained 28 ring members, including Thom and Dan.
They also seized 793 grams of heroin, 35 grams of cannabis, 280 methamphetamine
pills, four cars, US$20,820 and 11.4 billion Vietnamese dong (US$712,000) in
cash, and other relevant documents, Vietnam News newspaper reported. Local
police are further probing into the case, hunting down other ring members, and
clarifying factors relating to foreign countries, Vietnam News reported. In
1996, Hanoi police detected a 34-member drug trafficking ring led by a local man
named Vu Xuan Truong, which traded and transported over 400 kg of heroin. Among
the drug traffickers, eight were sentenced to death, and seven got life
imprisonment sentences. In Vietnam, possessing, trading or trafficking 600
grams of heroin or 20 kg of opium is punishable by death or life in
prison. Vietnam, as of late 2006, had a total of 160,226 drug addicts, over
70 percent of whom are in the age bracket of 18-35, according to statistics from
the country's Ministry of Public Security. Vietnam and nine other members of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including Laos, Cambodia, Thailand
and Myanmar hope to achieve a drug-free region by 2015.
Xinhua
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