Strengthening the fight against drugs in border areas

(Baonghean.vn) - On the afternoon of July 1, Major General Nguyen Canh Hien, Deputy Commander of the Border Guard, and a working delegation from the Border Guard High Command had a working session with the Nghe An Border Guard Command.

At the meeting, the Major General and the delegation listened to the unit's report on the implementation of the Plan to coordinate in resolving the complicated drug situation on the border between Que Phong district, Nghe An province (Vietnam) and Sam To and Muong Quan districts, Hua Phan province (Laos) (referred to as Plan 678).

Major General Nguyen Canh Hien gave a speech at the meeting.

On November 18, 2013, in Que Phong district, the Nghe An Border Guard Command and the Que Phong District People's Committee jointly organized a conference to deploy Plan 678. Immediately after the plan was deployed, the Nghe An Border Guard coordinated with the local authorities to unify the content, requirements, and measures to assign specific tasks to forces and units. With synchronous measures, up to now, Plan 678 has achieved quite solid initial results.

Specifically, regarding the basic investigation work, the working groups have conducted investigations, reviews, supplementary assessments, and completed basic investigations in 6 communes of Que Phong district and coordinated with and assisted the functional forces of Hua Phan province in conducting basic investigations in 5 outlying villages. Propaganda, mobilization and education work has also been promoted with diverse contents and forms such as through the radio loudspeaker system, organizing the screening of documentaries with propaganda content on the harmful effects of drugs for 106 sessions/1,197 viewers. People's meetings have been held to propagate in 78/78 villages, 7 schools in the area/4,072 participants, 4,072 ballots have been distributed, resulting in the villagers denouncing 342 subjects; 3,216 households have committed to implementing 5 no's (no buying, selling, storing, using drugs, planting and replanting opium poppies). Through the political struggle, 40 subjects were criticized, of which 4 subjects voluntarily asked to be criticized before the people for being involved in drugs. Along with the above measures, Nghe An Border Guard also stepped up patrolling and control work combined with fighting special projects and cases. Thereby, 3 drug trafficking lines from the border to the inland for consumption were broken up, 1 retail location was eliminated, 11 subjects were arrested, 37 cakes + 93.66 grams of heroin were seized; 2,427 synthetic drug pills, 10 grams of opium, 38 kg of opium poppy fruit, etc.

At the meeting, representatives of units under the Nghe An Border Guard raised difficulties and problems in the implementation of plan 678 so that the head of the Border Guard Command could have a plan to direct and resolve them.

Concluding the meeting, Major General Nguyen Canh Hien emphasized that the Nghe An Border Guard Command has taken measures to advise local authorities to participate in the plan strongly; Coordinate with the competent forces of neighboring countries to investigate and grasp the basic lines and key subjects of cross-border drug trafficking; In-depth propaganda work to make people aware of the harmful effects of drugs; Especially in the political struggle, extremely important results have been achieved in bringing drug-related subjects to the people for criticism, making people believe in the fight against drug abuse; Along with that, the struggle has also achieved high results, with the successful completion of many major projects, capturing key subjects. However, according to Major General Nguyen Canh Hien, Plan 678 has achieved initial successes, but the results are still not commensurate with the actual drug situation in the area. Therefore, in the process of doing so, it is necessary to seek effective methods so that the fight against drug crimes has a more long-term and effective effect.

Hung Phong