Southwest police asked to resolutely fight illicit drags trafficking in border areas

The Counter-Narcotics Police Department held a meeting on April 13 in An Giang province to review the implementation of counter-narcotics plans in the Southwest border areas.

The event saw the presence of Deputy Minister of Public Security Lieutenant General Nguyen Duy Ngoc and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, who is Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Committee of An Giang province.

The six Southwest provinces of Vietnam, namely Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang, share a 834-km borderline with eight provinces of Cambodia. There are 10 international border gates, nine main border gates, 23 auxiliary border gates and 125 border-cross paths along the shared borderline. Drugs trafficker take advantage of the border river system and cross-border paths to transport illicit drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam.

Particularly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnamese nationals living in Cambodia and criminals at home formed transnational drug trafficking rings to transport narcotics to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

They often hid illicit drugs in agricultural and seafood products while trafficking them across the border. Then local criminals sold those illicit drugs via social networks and hire shippers to deliver drugs hidden in normal goods to drug addicts.

Against this backdrop, the local police on the Southwestern region deployed effective plans to fight drug-related crimes in the border areas. After 6 months of implementing the plans, the local police mobilized 23 drug criminals to surrender themselves, destroyed 73 drugs dens and 17 hotspots of drug-related issues.

The Counter-Narcotics Police Department and the police forces of six Southwest provinces and Ho Chi Minh City successfully investigated 1,120 cases, arrested 2,097 people involved, seized 25,590 pills and 322.77 kg of synthetic drugs, 67 packs and 81.8 kg of heroin, and 54.65 kg of cannabis.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Ngoc emphasized that the above figures partly demonstrated the fierce and relentless fight of the police forces against drug crimes.

He asked the local police in the Southwest region and Ho Chi Minh city to further grasp the situation while advising local authorities on solutions to prevent and combat drugs trafficking.

The Southwest border police should also proactively detect and destroy drug trafficking rings to cut off the supply line of illicit drugs from border areas to Ho Chi Minh City and other localities in the South, and prevent criminals from using Vietnam as a deport of illicit drugs before transporting them to a third country.

The Counter-Narcotics Police Department was asked to continue coordinating with local police forces as well as the Border Guard, Coast Guard, and Customs forces in preventing and fighting drugs trafficking along the land border lines and at sea.

The Deputy Minister also asked the counter-narcotics police forces to raid domestic drug production facilities and destroy plantations of opium, marijuana, crack down on illegal production of synthetic drugs.

Regarding international cooperation in the fight against narcotics, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Ngoc asked the police of border provinces to focus on promoting coordination with the police in Cambodian bordering provinces via signed agreements and memorandums of understanding.

He also urged the police of border provinces to strengthen information exchange and coordination mechanisms in fighting organized and transnational drug trafficking rings, which also demonstrates Vietnam's political commitment and determination to fight illicit drugs in line with the country’s declaration "Vietnam does not legalize narcotics".