VietNamNet Bridge – A senior police official has admitted that drug abuse and drug-related crime in northwestern provinces remain extremely complicated.

Vocational training for former addicts in Lao Cai. (Photo: VOV)
At a conference held in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai on June 29, General Pham Quy Ngo put this down to the region’s long borderlines and difficult terrain as well as poor economies.

Another official from the Ministry of Public Security, Do Kim Tuyen, emphasized the urgent need to curb drug trafficking and abuse in the region.

Over the past five years, law enforcement agencies such as police, border guards, and customs in the region and its adjacent areas detected more than 36,500 cases of drug-related crime, arrested 47,000 criminals, and seized over 90kg of heroin, more than 27kg of Methamphetamin, over 200kg of opium, more than 190kg of marijuana, and over 852,000 pills of synthetic drug.

Relevant agencies warned that some drug rings might be entering from southern China and northern Laos.

VietNamNet/VOV online