NAM ĐỊNH — Police in the northern province of Nam Định and the High Command of Việt Nam Coast Guard announced on Thursday they had detained a prominent drug trafficker while he was carrying five kilogrammes of crystal meth from the northern city of Hải Phòng to the province.

Nguyễn Đình Thắng, better known as Thắng ‘dragon,” is a famous drug lord in Hải Phòng and has supplied large amounts of methamphetamine to others in the provinces of Nam Định, Thái Bình, Ninh Bình and Hà Nam. According to investigators, he usually delivers drugs during the middle of the night or early morning.

Nam Định police are investigating the case.

Also on Thursday, forces of the Border Guard High Command and the Border Guard of the central province of Nghệ An arrested a Lao citizen attempting to transport 50,000 methamphetamine pills and six kilogrammes of crystal meth into Việt Nam.

Tho No Bi, 36, a resident of the Lao province of Houaphan’s Xam Tay District, was caught red handed in the Mường Phú village border area in Thông Thụ Commune, Quế Phong District. The suspect admitted he was smuggling the drugs into Việt Nam for distribution. The case is under further investigation.

Việt Nam and Laos share a border of nearly 2,340 km that runs across through the 10 Vietnamese provinces of Điện Biên, Sơn La, Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Thừa Thiên-Huế, Quảng Nam, and Kon Tum. The border also run through 10 Lao provinces – Phongsaly, Luang Prabang, Houaphan, Bolykhamsay, Khammoune, Savannakhet, Salavan, Xiengkhouang, Sepon, and Attapeu.

The border is a hotspot of drug trafficking, with many traffickers being local ethnic minority people. — VNS