Some of the drugs hidden in toothpaste tubes carried by four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants from France to Tan Son Nhat Airport on March 16. (Source: HCM City Customs Department) Police said they found that the fourfemale flight attendants linked with this case had been taken advantage of bysome overseas Vietnamese to smuggle drugs from France to Vietnam.
In 30 days, police in coordination with other forces uncovered six more relatedbatches of goods with drugs hidden inside carried from France to differentairports in Vietnam.
Drugs were concealed in parcels ofgoods such as toothpaste or nutritional supplements. After arriving in Vietnam,they would be sent via domestic express delivery services to places in HCMCity, Binh Duong, and Dong Nai, among others as directed by overseasringleaders, according to police.
On March 16, customs officers of TanSon Nhat International Airport detected suspicious signs in the luggage of fourVietnam Airlines attendants boarding Flight VN10 from France. They checked andfound more than 8kg of ecstasy pills and over 3kg of cocaine and ketamine (themost expensive type of drugs).
The attendants said they had agreedto bring 60kg of goods from France to Vietnam in exchange for over 10 millionVND (426 USD). Due to tiredness after a long flight, they only took a cursoryglance at some of the goods and did not notice any suspicious signs. Authoritiesin France also did not discover drugs in their luggage.
On March 22 evening, after six days of investigation, the four flightattendants were freed as HCM City police concluded that they had not known drugs had been hidden in 157 of the toothpaste tubes they carried. Police also launchedan investigation into this drug trafficking case and put two suspects intotemporary detention.
There could be up to 100 personsinvolved in this particularly big drug trafficking ring from Europe to Vietnam,HCM City police estimated./.
VNA
