Police in the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau have uncovered four drug trafficking rings and seized over 17,400 methamphetamine pills in operations that have taken place since August.

According to Col. Le Van Bay, Director of Lai Chau Police Department, the arrested citizens are mostly from the border provinces of Dien Bien, Son La and Lao Cai. They are suspected of colluding with Lao traffickers to smuggle drugs from the Golden Triangle region into the locality.

The pills were mostly hidden in motorbikes or stuffed in goods packages, he added.

Mua A Ky, 29, a resident of Son La province, was caught red-handed in August illegally transporting over 6,600 methamphetamine pills from Son La through Lai Chau and then finally to Lao Cai province for sale.

Ky told police the haul was bought from a Laotian.

On September 20, the provincial police arrested Thao A Nhi from Dien Bien province and confiscated 4,000 pills.

Nhi allegedly bought them from Laos for a price of 120 million VND (5,640 USD) and was arrested on the way to China to smuggle them.

Earlier the same month, nearly 6000 meth pills were also uncovered following a bust in Dien Bien province.-VNA