Border guard forces of Vietnam’s central Ha Tinh province have detained six Lao drug smugglers, seizing 30 cakes of heroin, 45 kg of crystal methamphetamine and 6,000 pills of amphetamine.
Two detainees aged 25 and 29 were caught red-handed transporting the drug in Huong Son district on Friday evening, Vietnam News Agency reported on Saturday.
Expanding investigation, the authorities arrested their four accomplices. The men confessed that they had transported the drug from Laos to Vietnam for distribution.
Although Vietnam has some of the world’s most stringent drug laws — those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine face death – the country has also been facing the existence of a key smuggling and trafficking hub for illegal drugs around the Golden Triangle, at the intersection of China, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar.
The Golden Triangle is the world’s second-largest drug producing region, and the effects are being felt in Vietnam.