While handling a fish meal shipment transported from Peru to My Tho Port in Tien Giang Province on May 6, staff at feed producer Uni-President Vietnam found 119 packets of cocaine, sources said.

Tran Bao Chau, head of the Legal Department at Uni-President Vietnam, based in the southern province of Binh Duong, told the local media that the company had handed over the cocaine to the police of Tien Giang Province for further investigation.

Chau said that a branch of the company, located in My Tho City of Tien Giang Province and specializing in the production of poultry, animal and fishery feed, had imported the shipment of fish meal on Monday.

While storing the shipment in the company’s warehouse, some employees found four black bags containing 119 packets of white powder wrapped tightly with plastic tape. Chau stated that the white substance felt hard rather than soft like fish meal.

She added that a representative of the company called its suppliers in Hong Kong and Peru and, upon providing descriptions, was told that the bags were not part of their products. The company then reported the discovery to the competent authorities.

Representatives of the provincial police and the People’s Procuracy of Tien Giang later arrived to conduct a quick test and confirmed that the substance was cocaine.

The police retrieved the packages and sent a sample to a specialized agency for analysis, according to Pham Anh Tuan, vice chairman of Tien Giang Province. SGT