Drugs continuously detected in food sent abroad
Customs suspected that the food packages declared as cellophane noodles, dried vermicelli, jellyfish... were being exported abroad, so they inspected and discovered many drugs.
On September 26, the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said that it suspected a package of food exported through non-commercial means, entrusted by people in Ba Ria - Vung Tau through a shipping company, to be sent to Singapore, with the final destination being Australia. This package was declared as vermicelli, dried rice noodles, jellyfish...
Tan Son Nhat Airport Customs Branch coordinated with the anti-drug unit to inspect and discovered a package of solid crystals weighing more than 1 kg in dried foods. The Criminal Technique Department of Ho Chi Minh City Police later determined that this was Methamphetamine (crystal meth).
A few days earlier, a shipment of food declared as dried fish also took a similar route. The sender was an individual residing in Hai Phong, who entrusted a service company to handle export procedures through Singapore, and continued on to Australia. Inside, customs officers found 3.6 kg of crystal meth.
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| Crystal meth hidden in dried noodles and jellyfish. Photo: Provided by Customs |
The move to tighten control was made by the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department several months ago, when it was predicted that foreign criminal gangs would take advantage of the situation when the authorities had to focus on fighting Covid-19 to transport drugs to and from Vietnam.
In mid-August, the unit determined that the banned substances could have been sent from France to Saigon and then transported to the provinces for consumption. During the monitoring process, customs discovered suspicious signs in 10 parcels imported as non-commercial gifts, sent by the same person from France to Ho Chi Minh City via express delivery service, with the final destinations being Binh Duong and Dong Nai.
Searching the packages, the authorities found a total of more than 30 kg of drugs including ecstasy and crystal meth. The drugs, estimated to be worth tens of billions of VND, were disguised in chocolate (each candy contained 20 ecstasy pills). These candy packages were mixed with other normal chocolate packages with the same packaging and weight.
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| Bags of dried fish contained 3.6 kg of crystal meth. Photo: Provided by Customs |
According to statistics, in the first 9 months of the year, the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department coordinated with other functional forces to detect 60 cases of illegal import and export of drugs. The total amount of seized evidence was more than 150 kg.
Ho Chi Minh City Customs is coordinating with investigative agencies to expand the cases.
