Commend units for outstanding achievements in breaking specialised case of 446 heroin packages

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Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Can awarded the Letter of Merit of the Minister of Finance to the specialised case unit. Photo: T.D

At the ceremony, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City and Director of Ho Chi Minh City’s Police Department also had a Letter of Merit and Commendation Decision for the specialised case unit.

The ceremony was attended by Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Ngo Minh Chau, Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Can, Lieutenant-General Pham Van Cac, Director of the Investigation Police Department on Drug-related Crime- Ministry of Public Security, and Lieutenant-General Le Dong Phong, Director of Ho Chi Minh City’s Police and relevant units.

The Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Can gave a statement at the ceremony.

At the ceremony, the representative of the specialised case unit said on March 27, at An Suong crossroads, Trung My Tay ward, district 12, Ho Chi Minh City, the inter-branch working group 363 and Ho Chi Minh city’s Police detected a truck license plate No. 20C-163.22 moving from Thu Duc to An Suong and arrested Chen Tsen born in 1986, Taiwanese nationality (China) and seized 895 heroin packages.

This is a criminal line of drug illegal trafficking and transportation on a large scale and very sophisticated. To destroy this line, the Investigation Police Department on Drug-related Crime built and deployed specialised case 419D and the General Department of Vietnam Customs directed and deployed specialised case MT619, assigned the Ant-smuggling and Investigation Department as the head of the specialised case and coordinated with C04 to break the case.

Units received the Commendation Decision of the Ministry of Public Security for their outstanding achievements in the specialised case.

Based on documents collected during fighting the specialised case and documents provided by Taiwan police, the specialised case unit decided to tackle the case on November 31.

As a result, 446 heroin packages and one perpetrator were arrested. These drugs were hidden inside sacks and some mixed in plastic sacks to export.

Previously, on October 18, Taiwan Police seized 400 PVC plastic sacks transported from Ho Chi Minh City and found 56 heroin packages hidden inside 11 plastic sacks. At the same time, Taiwan Police arrested two perpetrators.

Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Ngo Minh Chau awarded the Letter of Merit of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to units.

Regarding this criminal line, Vietnam and Taiwan agencies have arrested three Taiwanese people, issued a decision on hunting for one Taiwanese person and seized 1,397 heroin packages and many related infringing goods.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Ngo Minh Chau, Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Can, Director of C04 Pham Van Cac highly appreciated the solidarity and coordination between the police, the customs forces and domestic and foreign units to destroy the specialised case.

Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Can emphasised through the report and assessment of trafficking and illegal drug transportation, drug transporters have operated in most areas. Previously, drug smugglers mainly used hiding drugs with a small volume in packages through express delivery. But now they hide drugs in luggage and goods by seaway, land way, airway and produce drugs in industrial parks and processing zones.

This is also a challenge that requires competent forces including the Police and Customs forces to be vigilant and prevent this situation. The Customs force has implemented preventive measures, but the biggest difficulty is that smugglers mix drugs in goods and luggage to abuse Vietnam’s preferential policies when deeply integrating with countries in multilateral and bilateral agreements.

Director General Nguyen Van Can said besides facilitating world trade, there is a need to close control and prevent smuggling, trade fraud and illegal transportation of drugs. The Customs sector will strengthen modern equipment to prevent and detect import and export goods showing signs of violation. Strengthening coordination and sharing information between forces including before, during and after customs clearance and even in the investigation of the case.