Bùi Thị Lệ Hằng, a former TV actress, arrested in March for drug trading. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The fight against drugs and drug crime is a long, thorny and fierce war.

Drug crime can lead to many other crimes affecting social order and security.

Recently, the police have dismantled many drug rings and arrested traffickers, including celebrities.

In March, the police of Hà Nội’s Đống Đa District arrested Bùi Thị Lệ Hằng, 48, who is a former TV actress, to investigate the act of illegal trading in narcotics and seized 0.696g of synthetic drugs.

At the police station, Hằng confessed that she received the above drugs to sell to customers for a living.

Before Hằng’s case, there have been many famous entertainers falling deeply into drugs.

In June 2022, HCM City’s police entered the apartment of actor Nguyễn Hữu Tín in District 8 and discovered him and two others using drugs.

At the scene, the police seized a dish containing drugs and two nylon packages containing 11 pills of drugs.

Through the testimonies of the subjects, before that, Tín and his friends gathered at a bar in District 1 to use drugs. At the end of the party, Tín brought the leftover drugs back to the apartment to use.

In March 2018, Nguyễn Việt Cường, known as singer Châu Việt Cường, and his friend used drugs at an apartment in Hà Nội’s Ba Đình District.

At the party, Cường appeared to have hallucinations and stuffed 33 cloves of garlic into H's mouth, a girl at the party, causing her death.

Cường was sentence 11 years in prison for the crime of murder.

Hằng, Tín and Cường are just a few of those who were not brave enough to overcome the temptation of drugs.

According to statistics from the National Committee for AIDS, Drug and Prostitution Prevention and Control, more than 275 million people worldwide use illegal drugs.

In Việt Nam, there are over 183,000 drug addicts. Over 47,000 people illegally use drugs and more than 17,000 are under drug rehabilitation management.

The people are mainly in big cities and the northwest and central provinces, creating a huge demand for drugs, leading to the organisation of illegal drug use that becomes very complicated, causing many consequences for society.

Alarmingly, with the rapid development of society, especially science and technology, drug-related criminals are constantly changing methods, tricks, and locations of operation.

Drug criminals are dangerous subjects who are increasingly sophisticated, violent and reckless while synthetic drugs, addictive pharmaceutical products and new drugs appear more and more and are disguised in many sophisticated forms.

Meanwhile, drugs at schools are complicated with the number of addicts and illegal users of narcotics tending to be younger.

Crime and drug abuse have caused anxiety and frustration within the community, threatening the stability and sustainable development of the country.

Zero tolerance for drug crimes

According to the National Committee for AIDS, Drug and Prostitution Prevention and Control, Việt Nam is located near the “Golden Triangle” area, a centre of drug production and crime, so drug crime in the country in recent years has been done through all routes of land, air and sea.

Methods and tricks of drug criminals are increasingly sophisticated and insidious. They are reckless to use “hot” weapons to fight against security forces when detected and arrested.

In particular, at present, drug criminals have taken advantage of advanced technology in trading and transporting narcotics.

Lieutenant-General Nguyễn Duy Ngọc, Deputy Minister of Public Security, said that over the past years, drug-related crime prevention and control has been implemented effectively and has achieved many successes.

Specialised forces have made great efforts, successfully discovering thousands of cases, arresting hundreds of thousands of drug-related criminals and seizing a large amount of drugs, Ngọc said.

Currently, the Drug Crime Investigation Police has enhanced dissemination of information about drug prevention and control in border areas as well as carried out suppression of drug-related crimes with neighbouring countries such as China, Laos and Cambodia, he said.

The ministries of public security of Việt Nam and Laos have signed a memorandum of understanding on strengthening co-operation in drug prevention and control between the two countries contributing to preventing the supply of drugs from the "Golden Triangle" area through Laos to Việt Nam, he said. — VNS