Piles of tea packets containing drugs are seized by police in HCMC - PHOTO: HCMC DEPARTMENT OF POLICE

According to officials, police in District 5 noticed three vehicles parked at a T-section linking Huynh Man Dat and Vo Van Kiet streets to transfer suspected banned goods on April 12. The vehicles included a seven-seat car and two trucks.

The police inspected one truck and teamed with other agencies to chase and apprehend the remaining car and truck, bringing the occupants to a local police station for questioning, along with the two Taiwanese.

After inspecting one truck, which transported 60 cartons containing abnormally heavy black portable loudspeakers, police seized over 600 kilograms of methamphetamine disguised as 600 tea packets, which were hidden in the loudspeakers.

The police then launched raids on the rooms of the two Taiwanese at the Liberty Hotel, as well as at a rented house in the southern province of Dong Nai, but found no evidence related to the case.

According to investigation results, a Chinese previously directed Yeh Ching Wei and Chiang Wei Chih to transport handicraft and electronic products on a truck on April 10, said the police. Officials also said Chiang Wei Chih entered Vietnam from Taiwan three times since last year via HCMC-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport, while this was the first time Yeh Ching Wei came to Vietnam.

Chih and Wei then booked two rooms at the Liberty Hotel and hired the seven-seat car.

On the following day, April 11, Chih rented a house in Dong Nai’s Long Thanh District to stay for two days. Then a truck driver transported Chih to HCMC on April 12, while Wei drove the car behind them.

Upon their arrival at Kelly Hotel, Chih contacted two foreign men, whose identifications remained unknown, and asked the truck driver to drive to the Huynh Man Dat street to deliver the so-called electronic items.

The investigation revealed that Ngoc Van Logistics company was in charge of delivering the 60 boxes from Thailand to the customer at the Kelly Hotel, and five other boxes to Bui Nguyen Huy Vu, 37, residing in HCMC’s Phu Nhuan District.

The police arrested Vu and seized nearly 50 kilograms of synthetic drugs hidden in five portable loudspeakers, a gun, and four bullets in his house. Also, Vu was caught in the act of storing some three kilograms of synthetic drugs and nearly one ton of ketamine in the house, under direction of a suspect residing in Laos.

On being informed that an owner of these boxes from Thailand had been ordered to disperse the remaining loudspeakers stored at the Ngoc Van company, the police immediately carried out a raid on the firm’s warehouse and seized 38 more loudspeakers and over 450 kilograms of methamphetamine.

Accordingly, the HCMC police seized over 1.1 tons of meth, nearly one ton of ketamine, and detained three suspects.

The municipal police are working with other agencies under the Ministry of Public Security and police in the north-central province of Nghe An to clarify the relation between the recently-seized drugs in HCMC and another drug trafficking ring captured in Nghe An, as well as to investigate the roles played by foreign nationals. SGT