Police break up largest drug ring in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

Colonel Phan Minh Tan, deputy director of the police department of the southern city of Can Tho, said on Sunday that local police officers had detained Tran Thi Thu Thao, a local woman; Do Van Chi, a 51-year-old man; and Bui Thi Hue, a 55-year-old woman – both from Hanoi.

Police initially seized nearly 700 grams of heroin from the group, who belongs to an inter-provincial drug smuggling ring, Colonel Tan said.

According to the case file, police caught Chi delivering two bricks of heroin to Thao outside her house in a small alley on Cach Mang Thang Tam Street at 6:40 pm on February 6, said Colonel Nguyen Dinh Huong, deputy head of the Drug Crime Investigation Police Office under the provincial Police Department.

Police then confiscated the heroin from Chi and VND250 million (US$11,750) in cash from Thao.

Tran Thi Thu Thao (L) and Do Van Chi are pictured when being arrested on February 6, 2015. Photo: Tuoi Tre

On searching the house, police officers seized many stun guns, scimitars, and dozens of cellphones.

Chi told police he had bought the heroin from Hue in Hanoi for VND150 million ($7,050) per brick and carried the drugs by train to Can Tho to sell for VND200 million ($9,400) per brick.

He told police that he had sold heroin to Thao many times.

Police are expanding their investigation to track down others involved in the case.

This is the largest drug trafficking ring that has ever been uncovered in Can Tho, Colonel Huong said, adding that the highest volume of drugs in previous cases was only 60 grams.

A source from the Ministry of Public Security’s Drug Crime Investigation Police Department said this seizure of drugs was also the biggest in the Mekong Delta so far.

Under Article 194 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, twenty years of imprisonment, life imprisonment or capital punishment can be given to those who are convicted of illegally stockpiling, transporting, trading in or appropriating heroin or cocaine weighing one hundred grams or more.

The same penalties are also given to those who commit the crimes in one of the following circumstances: opium resin, marijuana resin or coca plasma weighing five kilograms or more; marijuana leaves, flowers, fruit or coca leaves weighing 75 kilograms or more; dried poppy fruit weighing 600 kilograms or more; fresh poppy fruit weighing 150 kilograms or more; other narcotic substances in solid form weighing 300 grams or more or in liquid form measuring 750 milliliters or more.