Border Defence force: Fighting drug-related crimes

The subject and 66,000 drug pills were seized by the Border Defence, Customs and Quang Tri Police at the scene on June 20, 2022. Photo provided by Quang Tri Customs Department.

Successfully fought many key cases

According to the assessment of the of Anti-Drug and Crime Prevention Department (Border Guard Command), the transport of drugs to China across the border provinces of Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Cao Bang has risen. Also, the transport of drugs in large quantities from Laos to Vietnam through the North Central provinces, the Central Highlands, then to Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces for domestic consumption tends to be complicated.

There are many subjects who participated in drug trafficking and illegal transportation activities who come from different countries with many sophisticated methods and tricks.

According to the previous rule, criminals often find ways to transport large quantities of drugs from the "Golden Triangle" to gather in the mountainous border areas of Laos (adjacent to Vietnam), and then find opportunities to smuggle them into Vietnam and transport them to third countries for consumption. To achieve the goal, the instigator directs his "centipedes" to entice and bribe people on both sides of the border to participate in the transport.

Meanwhile, due to a difficult life, limited legal knowledge and high wages, many people have turned themselves into one of the "links" of transnational drug crime lines. Notably, drug crime lines and groups not only pay high wages but also equip weapons for drug traffickers to fight back when they are detected and surrounded by competent forces.

In recent years, instead of face-to-face meetings, transnational drug-related crimes often make full use of social networks such as facebook, zalo, and instagram to communicate, operate transportation and sell drugs. Through social networks, the subjects exchanged and agreed on the time, place and method of the "transaction".

Facing the complex development of drug-related crimes, competent forces such as the Police, Border Defence, Customs, and Coast Guard have implemented measures to prevent and successfully fought many key cases and destroyed transnational lines.

In particular, the drug-related crime prevention force of the Border Guard has achieved many results, contributing to reducing the source of smuggled drugs into Vietnam. The statistics showed that, since the beginning of the year, the Border Guard force has chaired and coordinated to handle 2,584 cases with 5,147 drug-related subjects, and 449,376kg of drugs of all kinds (of which they fought 17 key drug projects).

On May 23, the Central Task Force on anti-drug and crime prevention, Anti-Drug and Crime Prevention Department (Border Defence force) chaired and coordinated with competent forces in Quang Tri province to successfully close Project A2-322, arresting Tran Hoang Minh Nhat (born in 1997, residing in Hue city) due to the act of transporting 19,000 tablets of synthetic drugs.

Most recently, on August 2, Quang Tri Border Guard Command and Quang Tri Customs Department co-chaired and coordinated with the Central Central Task Force on anti-drug and crime prevention, Division PC04 (Quang Tri province Police) arrested two people related to a drug trafficking line from Laos to Vietnam. The seized exhibits included eight bricks of heroin and 2kg of methamphetamine.

Before that, in just a day, at the Northwestern border, the Border Guard, Police and Customs forces closed two large drug projects and seized 42,000 tablets of synthetic drugs and arrested two people.

Strengthen international cooperation

According to the Border Guard Command, the fact that through fight against drug-related crimes of competent forces, it showed there were many cases where drugs were transported across borders via international shipping services.

Criminals disguised drugs into goods packages and parcels for consignment by freight services or by bus companies operating across the country. The transactions in drug purchases and sales are also done through the international banking system.

Not only transnational drug trafficking activities, groups and retailers of drugs in the country also set up closed pages and groups on social networks. They post drug advertising with medicine names to avoid censorship of e-commerce sites.

The most popular drugs for sale on social networking sites are marijuana, "American weed", "alcohol 138" (wine pickled branches, fresh poppy fruit). When someone made contact through the messaging system on these pages, the subjects would not directly reply to the content related to the transaction to avoid tracking by the authorities. Instead, they would ask the buyer to contact them via another social media app.

After reaching an agreement, the subjects did not directly transact to avoid being caught by the competent forces. They would deliver the goods to the buyer in the form of packaging which was disguised as food and souvenirs, then sealed and delivered by freight forwarding services.

Colonel Do Ngoc Canh, Director of Anti-Drug and Crime Prevention Department (Border Guard Command), said that the Covid-19 pandemic was under control, border crossings are gradually restored. Therefore, the activities of drug-related crime on the border lines are forecast to be complicated, and increasingly operated on a large scale with more sophisticated, dynamic and dangerous methods and tricks.

Hence, to improve the effectiveness of drug-related crime prevention, the Border Guard Command has directed professional units to actively fight drug-related crimes.

Accordingly, the Department will continue to direct the synchronous implementation of professional work, firmly grasp the operation of drug-related crimes on the border; focus on improving the quality and efficiency of basic investigation on lines, topics and subjects; establish and investigate specialized cases, focus on investigating, detecting and fighting drug-related crime lines and organizations operating on a large-scale, preventing hot spots of crime and drug abuse on the border area; to basically prevent drugs from being smuggled across the border.

At the same time, the Department would strengthen international cooperation and closely coordinate with the Police, Customs and Coast Guard forces to effectively maintain the implementation of regulations and plans to coordinate and fight against drug-related crimes. In particular, they will strengthen coordination, develop specialized projects and plans, and focus on destroying lines of transnational drug-related crime.

Along with that, actively promote dissemination for people to participate in the struggle to prevent drug-related crimes and law violations, and maintain security and order in the border areas.