On June 15, Quang Binh police arrested a man for transporting more than 47,700 tablets of ecstasy from Laos to Vietnam for sale. Vietnam and other ASEAN countries are struggling in the fight against drug trafficking.(Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam andother countries located near Southeast Asia’s notorious 'Golden Triangle’ arefacing numerous challenges in the fight against drug trafficking.
The appearance of new psychotropicsubstances (NPS) and a rise in organised crimes have increased production andtrafficking of highly-addictive methamphetamine and added to the problem.
Major General Vu Xuan Vien, chief of theOffice for Crime and Drug Prevention under the Ministry of Public Security,made the remarks at the 5th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the ASOD (ASEAN SeniorOfficials on Drug Matters) Working Group on Law Enforcement in Hanoi on June 26.
The two-day meeting aimed to offerdelegates from Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines a chance toshare their experiences and discuss ways of bringing the situation undercontrol, he said.
Vien said he also expected that harshmeasures to tighten control of the trade would be more effectively implementedfollowing the meeting.
According to the United Nations Office onDrugs and Crime (UNOCD), several Mekong countries had already surpassed thetargeted number of seizures set for all of last year just a few months into2018, and methamphetamine from the Golden Triangle – the border areas ofThailand, Laos, and Myanmar – was being seized in high volumes acrossAustralia, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia.
In Vietnam, a report on collaborationbetween agencies, including the Police General Department and the GeneralDepartment of Vietnam Customs, showed that nearly 21,471 drug-trafficking caseswere reported in 2017, up 14.5 percent from 2016. Some 32,950 offenders weredetained, a 13.6 percent increase.
Laos arrested 4,241 drug offenders in 2017,148 more than in 2016, and seized 12 million tablets of methamphetamine, fourtimes higher than the previous year.
In the Philippines, police seized over 35kilos of shabu, 1,006 ecstasy tablets and 109 grammes of marijuana beingtransported via post between January and May 2018. Also during that time, about90 kilos of cocaine and nearly 13 litres of liquid cocaine were seized. On May26, 2017, police seized about 604 kilos of shabu.-VNA
VNA
