More than a tonne of methamphetamine was seized by the HCM City police, the largest bust ever, from packages purporting to contain tea on April 12. - Photo VNA

HCM CITY – The HCM City police are prosecuting two Taiwanese and a Vietnamese they allegedly caught a week ago with more than a tonne of methamphetamine, the largest drug haul ever in the city.        

The Taiwanese men have been identified as Yeh Ching Wei, 33, and Chiang Wei Chih, 31, and the Vietnamese man as Bùi Nguyễn Huy Vũ, 38.

On April 12 traffic cameras at the Huỳnh Mẫn Đạt - Võ Văn Kiệt intersection in District 5 detected two trucks backed into each other to transfer a load and a car.

When officers approached the suspicious-looking vehicles, the truck on to which the consignment was loaded and the car quickly drove off towards the Thủ Thiêm Tunnel, where they were intercepted by the pursuing police.

The truck had a Đồng Nai licence plate and inside were 60 unusually heavy speakers packed in cartons.

The two Taiwanese were not able to provide documents for the goods and were taken into custody.

Officers checking the speakers the next day found inside each 10 sealed tea packs containing 606kg of meth.

An investigation found that Ngọc Vân Transportation Company had been hired by a Thai business to transport the consignment from Thailand to HCM City’s Kelly Hotel.

The company had already delivered five speakers to a person called Bùi Nguyễn Huy Vũ in Phú Nhuận District, and police later found nearly three kilogrammes of meth and 999 grams of ketamine.

A raid of the transport company turned up 38 more speakers with 452 kg of meth inside.

The transport company said it did not know the consignment contained narcotics.

The two Taiwanese said they had been hired by a Chinese national to drive a truck from Đồng Nai to HCM City.

In all, the police seized over 1.1 tonnes of meth.

Large quantities of drugs have been caught in Việt Nam recently.

On April 17 Nghệ An Province police found 23 bags containing over 700kg of meth lying on National Highway 48B. They found in a warehouse 10 kilometres away 50 speakers which had been used to transport the drugs.

Two days before that, in the province’s Vinh city, police seized around 600kg of meth and 40 packs of heroin also stored in speakers.

In March 1.1 tonnes of meth transported from the Golden Triangle were seized in Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình and HCM City, and seven people, including kingpin Wu He Shan, a Chinese national, were arrested.

The narcotics department subsequently linked this and the one in Nghệ An with a Taiwanese trafficking ring.

It said many suspects had been identified in Thailand, Laos and Malaysia. – VNS