Valuable experiences from drug cases busted by Customs

	Many drug cases busted in a joint sting by customs and police
	Coast Guard busts drug cases
	Five major drug cases

500kg drugs jointly seized by the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department and the police in 2019. Photo: T.H

Experiences from big cases

Remembering the long days spent handling the M918 drug case in 2019, Mr. Huynh Nam, Captain of the Anti-Drug Enforcement Team under Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said, after nearly a year of collecting information, establishing the special case, on May 11, 2019, the M918 Special Team with the core force of Anti-Drug Control Team - Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department coordinated with the Drug-related crime investigation Police Department (C04) to inspect a warehouse in Binh Chanh district, and discovered four vacuum packaging machines used to pack drugs and more than 500kg of ketamine and arrested many suspects.

This is the case of illegal transportation of ketamine and drugs from Laos to Vietnam led by a group of Taiwanese (China) with the largest number ever to a third country for consumption (worth nearly VND500 billion).

Mr. Huynh Nam said the suspects were very cunning in concealing drugs and changing storage places, so to break this case, the customs and police had to spend long and hard days monitoring the suspects.

"Besides coordination, creating trust with local authorities and people in the process of information collection and tracking of the suspects is also one of the important and decisive factors for the success of the case," said Mr. Huynh Nam.

Talking about their experience in drug prevention, representatives of many local Customs units that are hot spots for drugs shared many practical experiences in cooperation in implementing special cases; lessons from the success of drug cases.

In particular, through the seizures, the units discussed and shared their skills and process to implement a case from receiving information to information processing, to breaking and closing the case.

The leader of Hanoi Customs Department shared many experiences from large drug seizures via express delivery. He said that, for cases occurring in the customs area, the Customs is the leading unit and actively works with the police agency to conduct an in-depth investigation and capture the leaders.

In addition, representatives of many local Customs units also said that anti-drug officials are not only good at their job but have passion and high responsibility.

Efficiency from coordination work

To achieve the highest effectiveness in the anti-drug work in the customs field, at the conference, units of the General Department of Customs and 19 local customs units shared experiences and professional activities related to the following topics: precursor control in the customs field to assess risks; the process of detecting, preventing and handling by the customs for cases of drug trafficking and illegal transportation; using specialized equipment for drug prevention, and discussed shortcomings, difficulties and problems as well as proposed solutions.

According to Deputy Director of the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department under the General Department of Customs Nguyen Van On, the situation of trafficking and illegal transportation of drugs in many areas is very complicated.

Notably, many drug production gangs in the domestic market have been tackled. He also said that in the role of protecting national security and sovereignty, the customs is in charge of effectively controlling imported drug precursors, strictly following the customs process and preventing the smuggling of the precursors into the domestic market; closely coordinating with the competent agencies to strictly control imported precursors.

Concluding the direction on drug prevention, Director General of the General Department of Customs Nguyen Van Can said that the discussion of three local Customs units that have been very successful in drug combat and prevention showed that the skills and experiences in drug prevention of the Customs units are becoming more and more professional and effective; many valuable lessons are drawn after each specific case.

Three major drug cases handled at the beginning of the year

The experiences, lessons as well as professional measures and processes in drug prevention and control shared and discussed at this conference will be developed into a document and a clip as learning materials for training throughout the sector.