Untold story of anti-drug cases

	Arrested a female passenger transporting over 4.4kg of cocaine via airway
	Arrest a female passenger hiding more than 4 kg of cocaine in cans of food
	Arrest 2 brothers transporting 18 bars of heroin

Phuong A Nha and exhibits were arrested in the Criminal Procedure Code. 418. Photo: Team 5 provided

Criminal Procedure of “4 in 1”

One day at the end of the year of 2018, we were present at the headquarters of the Northern Drug Control and Prevention Team - Team 5 (Department of Anti-Smuggling Investigation, General Department of Customs). In many stories about the fights against drug trafficking, I was especially impressed with the "4 in 1" case carried out in Ninh Binh in April 2018 (the Criminal Procedure Code. 418 chaired by the Investigation Department Anti-smuggling establishment, Team 5).

This is considered a typical case by the Customs forces in detection and seizure. Customs forces have arrested both sellers and buyers, and seized 30 kg of methamphetamine and $US 400,000 of exhibits.

Going back to the story of the case, even though it has been over for many months, in the memory of the commanders, the scouts who directly participated in the case, the situation just happened. They shared, this was a large-scale case. To overcome functional forces, traffickers transported drugs from Laos to Son La, then transported to Ninh Binh, continuing on to Ho Chi Minh City and then could take it to a third country for consumption. It can be seen, the transportation route in this line stretches for thousands of kilometers. "Not only that, the violators always have many sophisticated methods and tricks. For every 30 km to 40 km, traffickers in this line changed the vehicles, the carrier and the communication facilities, making it very hard for scouts in the process of supervising” - a scout in Team 5 joining the case shared.

"In order not to lose track of the traffickers, the unit must disperse troops appropriately, combined with the use of many professional measures and means, technical and professional skills. Therefore, although the subjects used many camouflage methods, they were always in the control of the Customs force and the functional units involved in coordination"- Leader of Team 5 added.

When the opportunity was ripe, with many "combat scenarios" set up in advance, Team 5 took the lead in coordinating with the relevant forces to "haul the net" successfully.

Also at the end of May 2018, the Southern Anti-Drug Control Team 6 (Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department) together with functional forces (Drug Crime Investigation Department) (C47B) - Ministry of Public Security, Southern Border Guard Task Force, Drug Crime Investigation Police Department - Ho Chi Minh City Police Department, My Quy Tay - Long An Customs Branch... also successfully broke the Criminal Procedure Code LA318, arresting the head of a major drug trafficking and transporting line from Cambodia through My Quy Tay border gate area (Long An) to Vietnam, the function force arrested 12 objects; 103,000 synthetic drugs (ecstasy), 39 heroin cakes, about 30 kilograms of synthetic drugs with cars, motorcycles and related documents. This is also one of the projects that had the largest number of drug arrests in the region, removing the two major trafficking, transnational drug trafficking routes from Laos and Cambodia to Vietnam related to many areas, many participants... "The criminals in this line are very sophisticated and reckless, especially using cars with Laos plates to transport drugs into Vietnam or transport through trails, path and then gather at the area near the border gate to bring it to HCMC for consumption”- a representative of Team 6 shared.

Destroyed drug transport line through the express...

Drug Criminal Procedure, including E318 project, seizing tens of kilograms of synthetic drugs "wasted" a lot of the efforts of customs scouting Teams of Anti-drug control Team - Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department when having to disguise a consignee for clinging to the suspects.

According to the scouts, through the implementation of professional measures, at the beginning of March 2018, the Anti-Drug Control Team obtained information about an international drug smuggling organization planning to bring ecstasy in large quantities into Vietnam. That is, ecstasy tablets camouflaged in packages, food boxes, chocolate candies, or pressed into plastic bags, hidden in personal belongings, children's toys, in carton boxes... sent from Belgium to Vietnam via non-commercial gift lines at foreign service post offices and express delivery centers.

Recognizing that drug smugglers can take advantage of the European courier service to illegally transport this drug into Vietnam, the Anti-Drug Control Team has collaborated with the Customs Sub-Department to quickly collect and review records, verify information of suspicious non-commercial gifts from European countries.

After nearly a month of supervising at the delivery locations of the Branch, on the last day of March 2018, the working group discovered 3 parcels imported from Belgium to a courier center with the above special characteristics and have coordinated for inspection. Through inspection, Customs officials discovered and seized over 6,900 grams of MDMA tablets hidden in vacuum cleaners, children's toys, in carton boxes.

From this case, leaders of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department set up a Criminal Procedure Code E318 and assigned to the Anti-Drug Control Team to take responsibility and coordinate with the related forces in fighting against illegally transporting MDMA through Ho Chi Minh City border gate and concentrate forces and means to carry out professional measures to combat. As a result of this case, Ho Chi Minh City Customs arrested 14 shipments of MDMA imported into Ho Chi Minh City from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in the form of non-commercial personal import through express delivery areas and seized an amount of material of about 20 kg of drug type MDMA.

Solve crime through international information exchange

The thrills and intrigues in solving crimes by the customs authorities continues to be further written in the Resolution 626 by officials specialized in anti-drug control team in the Quang Ninh Customs Department. It was unexpected that only one mobile phone number related to a previous drug trafficking and transport line to be the first rare clue for the Quang Ninh Customs forces to organize a team to solve crime.

At the end of March 2018, Quang Ninh Customs received a Note from Nanning Customs (China) with information on a suspect and phone number related to illegal drug trafficking in China has been arrested. Under the support of the C47 (Ministry of Public Security), the scouts of Quang Ninh Customs determined the exact location of the suspects in Tra village, Lien Bao commune, Tien Du district, Bac Ninh province. And another important fact was that this person often collected and dealt in drugs with some objects in Mong Cai City (Quang Ninh), Lang Son Vietnam and China.

Exhibits of 10 heroin tablets were jointly arrested by Quang Ninh Customs forces on July 12, 2018, in Lang Son. Photos provided by customs forces.

Ecstasy was discovered by HCMC Customs in the E318 case. Photo: T.H.

At the same time, in Mong Cai City (Quang Ninh), PC47 forces, Quang Ninh Police successfully coordinated for destruction of the 72 tablets of heroin, excluding the possibility that the suspects would change the place of delivery. As expected by the customs force, the suspects immediately contacted a number of subjects from Nghe An to transport goods to Lang Son, then take them to China for consumption.

Combining information from multiple sources, at the end of May 2018, the Anti-Drug Control Team proposed that the Department's leadership decide to establish a Specialist Committee to carry the Criminal Procedure Code QN 626. The name of QN 626 also has an interesting link, "626" is the last 3 digits of the mobile phone number of the subject.

Two working groups have been set up by the Team to tighten the path of the subject. On the one hand, it sent his staff to Nghe An to monitor every movement of the object and supervised the process of transporting drugs from Nghe An to Lang Son. On the other hand, assigning officials to coordinate with PC47, Lang Son Police to arrest unexpectedly, so that the objects could be able to respond.

Using information from scouts, the Team has identified the date and time of subjects passing through Tung Dien Traffic Control Station Km62 + 500 (under Minh Khai village, Chi Lang town, Lang Son), which was also a convenient location to stop vehicles and make an emergency arrest of objects.

The opportunity came, on the afternoon of July 12, also at Tung Dien Traffic Control Station, forces: Quang Ninh Customs in coordination with C47 (Ministry of Public Security) and PC47, Lang Son Police; Tung Dien Traffic Police Station organized a force to stop cars carrying plate no. 34B-010.20 for inspection. 2 suspects were quickly controlled and 10 tablets of heroin were seized with a total weight of nearly 3.47 kg.