Police have arrested six people in separate drug crime operations since the beginning of the year, uncovering major stashes of heroin, cannabis and synthetic drugs.

Drug traffickers and exhibits.

Four Lao nationals and a Thai national were arrested on Sunday when they were caught transporting 91 heroin packs and 35,800 synthetic drugs pills to Thaphabath District in Bolikhamsai Province. The border area with Viet Nam was a stop before the drugs were smuggled into the country.

The alleged smugglers, aged from 19 to early 40, were equipped with guns and "ready to fight off the police when detected," said Colonel Vo Trong Hai, head of the Ha Tinh Border Guard which made the arrests.

The trans-national drugs ring was uncovered during a joint operation between Ha Tinh Province border forces and Laos's Bolikhamsai police.

The arrested were handed to Lao authorities for further investigation.

In a separate drug bust on the same day, customs officials arrested a Vietnamese man when he was attempting to smuggle six packs of dry cannabis through the Lao Bao border gate in the central province of Quang Tri. The cannabis weighed roughly six kilos.

Le Phuc, 44, from Nam Pho Ha hamlet in central province of Thua Thien-Hue, admitted to the authorities that he had traveled to Laos on Saturday to buy the cannabis in Savannakhet Province.

He later hired a woman to take a backpack filled with the cannabis inside through the Densavan border gate – the Lao name for Lao Bao border gate. Phuc was arrested when he received the backpack from the woman.

VNS