Vietnamese nabbed for smuggling 64 kg of drugs from Cambodia

On Sunday night, officers and border guards searched the house of Truong Quoc Cuong, 41, in Vinh Hung District, Long An Province and seized 57 kg of crystal meth and seven kg of heroin.

The raid followed several days of surveillance based on suspicion that Cuong was engaging in cross-border drug smuggling.

Cuong confessed to the police that the drugs, hidden in packages of tea and powdered milk, were transported from Cambodia into Vietnam for domestic consumption.

Long An Province is the southwest neighbor of Ho Chi Minh City, where three massive drug seizures happened in the last two weeks of March. In all cases the drugs originated from the Golden Triangle, and in two of them, the drugs were on the way to Taiwan and the Philippines. Golden Triangle is an intersection of Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar and the world's second largest drug producing area behind the Golden Crescent in South Asia.

Speaking at a conference last week, Vietnamese top drug officials said the country's long borders, multitude of trafficking routes and customs loopholes are turning it into a major drug trafficking hub.

The repeated haul of huge amounts of drugs is happening despite Vietnam having some of the world’s toughest drug laws. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or cocaine or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine could face the death penalty. The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death.