On March 29, traffic police found a suspected carregistered in Laos crossing Ha Long City on National Highway 18, a spokespersonof the province’s police force said.
They stopped the car for search and discovered PhungTrung Dung from Quynh Phuc district, Thai Binh and Phan Tha Vong, a Laonational from Vientiane, Laos with 100 bricks of heroin hidden in three secretcompartments inside the car.
Body search of Dung also found some small bagsallegedly containing synthetic drug pills. The pair confessed that they were onthe way to the border area to sell the drug.
The police said they are expanding the investigationfurther on the case.
The case was broken just two days after three men werearrested for smuggling 135 bricks of heroin and 500,000 synthetic drug pills inthe northern mountainous province of Dien Bien. It was the largest quantity ofsynthetic drug pills seized in the country so far. Two out of three areresiding in Dien Bien province while the other is a foreigner.
Drug-trafficking remains a major issue in Vietnam, especially at border areas, likeQuang Ninh, which shares border with China, and Dien Bien, bordered by China tothe northwest and Laos to the west.
Nearly 21,471 drug-trafficking cases were reported in Vietnam last year, up14.5 percent from 2016, according to a report on collaboration amongthe Police General Department, the General Department of Vietnam Customs,Vietnam Border Guard High Command and Vietnam Coast Guard.
Some 32,950 suspects were detained, a 13.6 percent increase over2016’s figure.-VNA