New regulations on coordination in fighting drug-related crimes

Electric motor contained drugs were detected by Customs and Police forces in May 2021. Photo provided by C04

Transnational drug-related crimes tend to increase sharply

The Ministry of Public Security assessed the inter-sectoral coordination in drug-related crime prevention and control in border and border-gate areas achieved many important results, but it also uncovered many difficulties and inadequacies. The situation of illegal transport of drugs across the border has tended to increase sharply in recent years, especially from 2014 to now.

Limitations occurred in coordination in fighting drug-related crimes like coordination in patrolling and control at border areas, border gates and seaports for drug-related crime prevention and control have not developed effectively. The responsibility of each force is not clear.

Coordination in drug control in border areas and border gates has not yet achieved high efficiency, criminals take advantage of the Government's open policy on goods import and export activities to mix drugs in other types of goods, illegally transported to abroad in large quantities.

The settlement of complex drug-related areas and routes is still not thorough nor is there effective cooperation in detecting and preventing the increasing number of new drug addicts while the organisation of drug rehabilitation is limited and inadequate.

In some cases, the competent forces lacked coordination from the beginning, making it difficult for expanding and further investigation.

In addition, a number of legal documents have expired or have been replaced, amended or supplemented, and need to be updated.

How to coordinate the fight against crime?

To improve the effectiveness of coordination in the fight against drug-related crimes, in the draft decree stipulating and guiding the implementation of several articles of the Law on prevention and control of narcotic substances, the drafting agency devoted many regulations on the coordination of specialised and permanent agencies to coordinate in the prevention and control of drug-related crimes.

A notable regulation is a coordination for deploying special project on combating, investigation and handling of specific cases. Accordingly, specialised agencies shall coordinate to establish and fight specialised projects in the following cases:

Firstly, for special projects on drugs that is established by specialised agencies in charge of drug-related crime prevention and control under the Border Guard, Coast Guard and Customs, have subjects related to domestic management area of drug-related crime prevention agency under the Police authority, they shall cooperate, comply with requests and receive relevant documents and evidence for investigation and handling.

Secondly, for drug projects established and fought by a specialised agency in charge of drug-related crime prevention and control of the police authority, have subjects related to border areas, border gates and at sea, the drug-related crime prevention and control agencies under the Border Guard, Coast Guard and Customs will coordinate and comply with the requests of Police authority.

Thirdly, for complex drug projects which have subjects related to many localities, transnational activities, agencies shall coordinate to establish a special project board to jointly fight and detect. The agency in charge of drug-related crime prevention and control of the force that detects drugs will co-chair with the agency in charge of drug-related crime prevention and control under the police authority)

If it is necessary to establish a special project steering committee, the police force shall be the head of the steering committee and the border guards, coast guard and customs forces will be members.

Fourth, in case the specialised agency in charge of drug-related crime prevention and control under the Border Guard, Coast Guard, and Customs detected information and documents relating to drug-related crimes in their management areas, and have enough grounds to establish a special project, they shall chair and coordinate with other specialised drug-related crime prevention and control agencies to handle in accordance with the law.