Lao health worker caught bringing drugs into Vietnam

Police and border guards found Tu Ly and two others in the province’s Phuc Son Commune, Anh Son District, bordering Laos, at around 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

When the suspects resisted the authorities, a warning shot was fired into the air, and two managed to escape into the jungle.

The captured man, 33, told local authorities that he was a health worker for a district in Laos. He was hired for trafficking because he had lived and studied in Vietnam for a long time and knew the language and the place quite well.

Nghe An police said their drug division investigated and discovered the trafficking operation in collaboration with the province's border guards.

Vietnam has some of the world’s toughest drug laws. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 g of heroin or over 2.5 kg of methamphetamine (meth) face death.