2.5 tons of 'extremely toxic' drugs discovered in Vietnam

Declared as dried herbs, dried moringa trees, dried tea..., drugs containing "absolutely prohibited" substances entered Vietnam via international post.

In March, the Hanoi Customs Department's anti-drug task force received information about a ring illegally transporting herbal drugs from abroad into Vietnam via international post for forwarding to a third country.

An estimated 2.6 tons of drugs were seized, worth millions of dollars.

In early May, Hanoi Customs Department established a project in coordination with Team 5, Anti-smuggling Investigation Department, General Department of Customs and Room 7 (C47 Ministry of Public Security) to destroy this ring.

The investigation team determined that this was an organized, large-scale, nationwide network.The mastermind is abroad, the sender and recipient are hired in Vietnam.

Taking advantage of Vietnam being a tea exporting country, when importing and exporting, individuals and businesses declare to customs that these are dried herbs, dried moringa trees, and dried tea.They import dried herbs fromKenya, Ethiopia,South Africa gathered in Vietnam and then tried to transfer to third countries such as Australia, the Netherlands, the US, etc. by air or international post.

On April 15, the first shipment was discovered by authorities with 36 packages, total weight of about 545 kg, sender fromEthiopiaThrough the examination of the Institute of Criminal Science, the ingredient in the examined sample is cathinone, which is on the list of drugs absolutely prohibited for use in medicine and daily life.

Consecutively from April 15 to June 28, the Investigation Committee discovered shipments sent to the US, UK, Australia or imported from several countries to Vietnam with the declared content of "dried tea" or "dried herbs", "moringa"... Sample testing results also showed the presence of cathinone in the above shipments.

Dried herbal drugs were discovered for the first time in Vietnam.

Currently, authorities have seized a total of 199 packages (194 packages at the Express Customs Branch and 5 packages at the Noi Bai International Airport Customs Branch) weighing about 2.5 tons.

According to authorities, if the goods were successfully transported to European countries or the US, they would be worth an estimated millions of dollars.

According to VNE