Foreign pilots arrested for alleged narcotic trafficking
Two foreign pilots were detained at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport on August 19 for trafficking a substance suspected of being narcotics.
Baggage checking at Noi Bai airport (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Two foreign pilots were detained at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport on August 19 for trafficking a substance suspected of being narcotics.
At 11:05pm of August 18, the customs force at Noi Bai, via screening, found suspicious signs in the baggage of Elmer Ederadan Sorrea, a 45-year-old Filipino, and Francis Dennis Abellera Yutangco, a 53-year-old US national.
They said they were pilots of Vietnam’s budget carrier Vietjet Air and were about to board a Cebu Pacific Air flight from Hanoi to Manila, the Philippines.
Customs officers checked their baggage and found a model aircraft with white powder inside. The 505-gram model had its wings and base disassembled.
A quick drug indicator test showed that the white substance turned the same colour that signals opiates. The group of opiates includes opium, heroin and morphine.
In the morning of August 19, customs at Noi Bai airport sent samples of the substance to the Forensic Science Institute for further testing.
The two suspects and all of their personal baggage were handed over to the Police Department for Investigation of Drug-related Crime for more investigation.-VNA
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