151 tons of drugs seized in East and Southeast Asia

	Vietnam Customs promotes cooperation in international law enforcement
	Strengthening international cooperation in the fight against drugs

Delegates attend the conference. Photo: C04.

Countries in the Greater Mekong-sub region cooperate to combat drugs

Director of the Counter-Narcotics Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, Major General Nguyen Van Vien, led the Ministry's delegation to attend the meeting.

The conference was attended by 70 delegates from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Addressing the meeting, Mr Jeremy Douglas - the Regional Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said that the law enforcement forces in East and Southeast Asia seized more than 151 tons of drugs, mainly synthetic drugs, and 27.4 tons of ketamine, up 167% compared with 2021.

According to Mr Jeremy Douglas, countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region have faced an increasingly complex and unpredictable drug threat, seriously affecting the socio-economic development, order and safety of regional and global countries.

The Golden Triangle area, located in the border area of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, is identified as the second largest drug supply source in the world and annually supplies over 80 tons of heroin and thousands of drugs to the market. Drugs have been transported from the Golden Triangle area to Greater Mekong Sub-region countries for consumption and shipped to the third country by many sophisticated tricks.

In addition, the drug markets in the world shows a growing trend towards closer link. There are many transnational and intercontinental drug trafficking rings. Many types of drugs that have been produced in the Euro and the Americas have been detected in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

Major General Nguyen Van Vien said that the Vietnamese Government has drastically focused on responding to the world's challenge on the drug problem. Vietnam has set out a National Strategy on Drug Prevention and Control with a vision to 2030.

Over the past years, Vietnam has achieved remarkable results, such as maintaining and promoting bilateral and multilateral cooperation with law enforcement forces of countries in the region, especially with neighbouring countries.

The Government has improved capacity building for anti-drug and investigation forces with the support of international partners, especially UNODC.

In addition, the country's Government has strengthened the control and prevention of precursor loss by actively participating in multilateral forums on drug prevention and control in the region and the world, considering it as one of the remote drug prevention solutions to help reduce pressure on domestic drug prevention and control.

Vietnam and China cooperate to combat drugs

On September 4, the 9th bilateral conference on drug prevention and control cooperation between Vietnam and China was also held in Beijing.

Major General Nguyen Van Vien led the Vietnamese delegation, while the Permanent Deputy Secretary General of the National Narcotics Control Commission, Wei Xiaojun, headed the Chinese delegation.

Delegates attended the 9th bilateral conference on drug prevention and control cooperation between Vietnam and China. Photo: C04

To effectively deal with the drug threat, Vietnam has taken flexible approaches, prioritising preventing illicit drug trafficking across land, water and air borders.

Along with strengthening law enforcement, Vietnam has implemented solutions to disseminate and raise people's awareness of the harms of narcotics and preventing narcotics trafficking while effectively addiction treatment models in the community.

Vietnam also has expanded cooperation with other countries, especially those that have signed bilateral drug prevention and control agreements.

In the spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Governments of Vietnam and China on cooperation in the control of drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors signed in 2001, the two sides have cooperated comprehensively and closely in implementing activities on counter-narcotics.

The two sides have maintained the annual bilateral meeting, regularly exchanged information, combated specialised counter-narcotics cases, arrested drug suspects, and tackled drug production and transportation rings across the border.

Notably, in July 2019, for the first time, China sent police officers to Vietnam in coordination with their Vietnamese peers to investigate Case 626T, successfully destroying a large-scale synthetic drug production ring and busting many Chinese drug suspects. This shows the effective cooperation between the two countries in the fight against illicit drugs.

After the COVID-19 pandemic has been controlled, transnational illicit drug trafficking has increased, as illicit drug traffickers have used sophisticated methods. The complex nature of the crime requires the two sides to make great efforts in the fight against drug-related crime.

Major General Nguyen Van Vien highly appreciated the effective coordination and cooperation between the two countries' central-level and local police agencies in recent times.

Major General Nguyen Van Vien believes that in 2023 and the following years, inheriting the tradition of partnership between the two sides, the cooperation in illicit drug prevention and control between Vietnam and China will achieve more practical and positive results shortly.