~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

Year :      [2004]      [2003]      [2002]      [2001]      [2000]      [1999]      [1998]      [1997]

Vietnam to increase police force to curb drug trafficking from Cambodia

HANOI - Vietnam will double its anti-drug police force in six southwestern provinces to curb narcotics trafficking from neighboring Cambodia into Vietnam, state-controlled media reported Saturday. The decision came at a meeting of law enforcement officials in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, the Youth newspaper said.

Speaking at the conference, deputy national police chief Lt. Gen. Nguyen Viet Thanh expressed concern that only 15 percent to 18 percent of the country's total drug cases were uncovered at the border areas, compared with the rate of 80 percent to 85 percent in other countries. "This shows that our border has not been closely controlled," he said. There are more than 140,000 drug addicts in Vietnam, the majority heroin users. Most of the heroin is smuggled into Vietnam from the Golden Triangle area of Laos and Cambodia.

Ho Chi Minh City's deputy police chief Phan Anh Minh said at the conference that provinces should send drug addicts into rehabilitation centers to reduce demands. The city has sent 32,000 drug addicts with known criminal records to the centers, but Minh estimates that there are another 5,000 drug addicts without police records. In Vietnam, possessing, trading or trafficking 600 grams (1.32 pounds) of heroin or 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of opium is punishable by death. Despite the tough drug law, drug trafficking in the communist country has shown no signs of declining.

The Associated Press - December 18, 2004.