Liao Zhihuai (in yellow shirt) and the seized sacks of drugs. — Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security

HÀ NỘI — The Drug Crime Investigation Police Department (C04) under the Ministry of Public Security announced on Friday that it has smashed a cross-border drug production and trafficking ring and launched legal proceedings against seven suspects.

The ring was led by Liao Zhihuai, a 43-year-old Chinese national.

According to the agency, in early August 2023, the department was informed that two Taiwanese people intended to use fishing boats to transport drugs from Việt Nam to other countries for consumption via sea routes.

In early September, six suspects in the ring arrived in Việt Nam. They booked hotels, rented cars, hired translators, rented warehouses and bought 100 tonnes of cement to gather at a warehouse in Hồng Bàng District, the northern city of Hải Phòng. Then, they left the country.

On September 20, two members of the ring entered Việt Nam. They moved to the warehouse in Hải Phòng and directed the unloading of sacks containing drugs hidden in the warehouse.

Two days later, the agency in coordination with relevant agencies, including police of Hà Nội, Hải Phòng, and Thái Bình, and the Việt Nam Immigration Department simultaneously arrested suspects involved in the case and searched the warehouse where a total of 750kg of ketamine was found. Liao was also taken into custody.

Expanding the investigation into the case, on September 24, the agency collaborated with Hà Tĩnh Police to arrest Phạm Duy Khanh, a local resident, who was hired to transport sacks containing drugs to Việt Nam. The police seized 22 sacks containing 550kg of ketamine which was hidden in a fake gas tank and below the passenger seat, found after searching his car.

Liao told investigators that he and his accomplices set up a pharmaceutical company, then took advantage of it to buy precursors and chemicals to produce synthetic drugs. Finished drugs are transported to Việt Nam via road and gathered in Thai Binh, then brought to Hai Phong for export to third countries, he added.

The suspects' company was licensed to import 64 types of precursors, chemicals, and solvents with an amount of nearly 9,000 tons, worth more than US$5.7 million within a year, according to the investigators.

Further investigation into the case is underway. — VNS