Two men at the court

The two men are Nguyen Duc Manh, 35, a resident of Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem district, who was jailed for 18 years, and Andrew Eachan Alexander, 26, who was sentenced to two years.

The Scot will be deported from Vietnam upon completing his sentence.

Manh ran an eatery in Hanoi’s Old Quarter and knew many foreigners looking for drugs.

On December 23, Hanoi police arrested Andrew, a customer of Manh, with two bags of marijuana and three ecstasy pills. He said he had bought drugs from Manh many times and had sold them to others.

Manh was charged with trafficking 232 grams of meth and nearly two grams of ketamine, while Andrew was involved in trading 1.424 grams of ecstasy and meth and 5 grams of marijuana. 

More drugs found as investigation into ring led by former Korean police officer expands

Police arrested 15 suspects and have seized 19 bricks of heroin and 120kg of various types of drugs in the last two days after searching 11 locations, including nine in HCM City and two others in the southern province of Đồng Nai.

Among the seized drugs, 75kg of methamphetamine was found at a storehouse in HCM City’s Bình Chánh District, while another 30kg of methamphetamine was found at a storehouse in Tân Bình District.

The crackdown is part of an expanded investigation into a transnational drug trafficking case involving South Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese suspects which police uncovered on July 19. 

On that day, when examining a container in HCM City’s Cát Lái Port, police found 40kg of methamphetamine hidden in granite blocks in the container. At the time of inspection, the container was set to be sterilised before being shipped to Incheon Port in South Korea.

Examining five locations in the city, authorities seized five suspects including two Chinese, two Koreans and one Vietnamese national. Of them, Kim Soon Sik, 50, a South Korean and a former police officer was believed to be in charge of the drug trafficking ring.

The drugs were intended to be sold in southern localities or exported.

Under Vietnamese law, those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or cocaine or more than 2.5kg of methamphetamine can face the death penalty.

The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300grof any other illegal substance is also punishable by death.

Lao Cai police breaks big trans-border drug trafficking ring

Police in the northern border province of Lao Cai said on August 3 that they have broken down a drug trafficking ring, seizing three suspects and 84,800 tablets of meth.

Cu A Vang, born in 1972, residing in Nam Tin commune, Nam Po district of Dien Bien province; Tran Thi Din, born in 1979 and Vang Thi Pang, born in 1986, both from Muong Khuong district of Lao Cai province, were arrested on July 31 in O Quy Ho ward, Sa Pa district while transporting the drugs.

The suspectsare part of a trans-national drug trafficking ring which avoided police by changing the delivery method and addresses regularly.

At the police station, they said that they took the drugs from a Lao national called “Minh”who hired them to transport the drugs from an area on the Vietnam-Laos border in Nam Po district of Dien Bien to Lao Cai city, and then deliver to a Chinese called “Thao” for 150 million VND. Pang and Din took the role as guides for Vang to the delivery address where they were arrested.

The case is under further investigation. VNA/VNS