Border guards of Vietnam’s central Thanh Hoa province have detained a local man for trafficking seven cakes of heroin and 56,000 pills of synthetic drug, Vietnam News Agency reports.
The 55-year-old man from the province’s Quan Son district was caught red-handed transporting the illicit drugs on a national road in the mountainous district on Thursday.
Vietnam is a key trafficking hub for drugs from the Golden Triangle, an intersection of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, which is the world’s second largest drug producing area after the Golden Crescent in South Asia.
Drug trafficking and consumption have persisted and worsened in Vietnam over the last few years, despite it having some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws, including death sentences for drug smuggling and trading.
According to the Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty.
