A large quantity of drugs was illegally traded by a ring headed by a Chinese seized in March. — Photo thanhnien.vn

HÀ NỘI — Drug-related crimes have become more and more complicated and unpredictable this year, according to the Investigation Police Department on Drug-related Crimes.

The situation was directly impacted by global and regional crimes, police said.

Illegal drugs in Việt Nam mainly came from overseas to be traded in the country or for transport to third localities via Việt Nam’s land, air and sea routes, said the department’s head Lieutenant-General Phạm Văn Các.

The trading and trafficking of illegal drugs, especially synthetic drugs, had sharply increased in border areas with Laos and Cambodia, he said.

Since earlier this year, police had tackled many illegal drug trafficking cases involving large quantities of narcotics in border areas.

The reason was that the border route was directly affected by illegal drug production and trading from the 'Golden Triangle' area, the policeman said.

The drugs from the 'Golden Triangle' around the Laos, Thailand and Myanmar borders were transported through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia to Việt Nam.

Notably, some criminal rings from North America and Africa used Cambodia as a transit route to transport drugs to Việt Nam’s northern provinces and China.

Meanwhile, in the border area between Việt Nam and China, heroin was transported to China via Việt Nam and meth was transported from abroad to Việt Nam for consumption.

The seaports continued to be potential routes for drugs to enter and transit through Việt Nam.

Drug crimes with foreigner involvement were common in the southern region, especially HCM City which became a 'hot spot' of the crime in Việt Nam.

Some foreigners, mainly Chinese and Taiwanese, came to Việt Nam as tourists or businessmen and took advantages of the Government’s preferential policies on import-export, customs and immigration to carry out drug crimes.

They often worked with Vietnamese entities to set up businesses and rent warehouses to disguise their illegal activities.

To confront with situation, the department has enhanced measures and worked with other forces to fight drug-related crimes, said the police general.

The control and management of addictive and psychotropic drugs had many positive changes and international co-operation on drug prevention had been expanded.

This year, the department dismantled thousands of crime rings headed by both Vietnamese and foreign nationals.

As of November, police had detected more than 23,300 cases, arresting over 36,200 criminals and seizing more than one tonne of heroine, more than one million pills of synthetic drugs, 614kg of opium and 768kg of cannabis.

Notably, the synthetic drugs figure increased five times compared to last year, the police said. — VNS