The Ha Noi Customs Department has worked with Police authority to arrest many cases of illegal transportation of drugs and suspects.

Infringing goods in Action plan HC 221.

Many smuggling rings tackled

According to the Anti-drug Enforcement Team (under Ha Noi Customs Department), the drug trafficking across its management area is complex and poses risks. Especially, transportation modes and tricks to hide drugs via the airway, express delivery and postal services are increasingly sophisticated and tend to increase in scale and nature.

The Anti- drug Enforcement Team tackled 22 drug cases in 2019 and 15 cases in 2020.

Recently, the Anti- drug Enforcement Team has developed plans for patrol and supervision, and taken customs control measures to arrest smugglers, seize infringing goods, and coordinated with authorities to tackle smuggling rings and gangs.

Therefore, after detecting suspicious shipments, the team pays attention to the coordination with specialised forces under the Police authority, the General Department of Vietnam Customs and relevant units.

Thanks to coordination with competent authorities in the area, especially Team 5, the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department, the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Division 7-C04, C09 of Ministry of Public Security and Police authorities of Ha Noi city, Thai Nguyen, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa, the team has developed many action plans and arrested cases of illegal transportation of drugs and smugglers.

Recently, Ha Noi Customs Department has worked with C04 of the Ministry of Public Security to build an action plan HC 221. The working group of C04 worked with the Anti- drug Enforcement Team to arrest Nguyen Van Chung, aged 45, residing in Thai Nguyen City, Thai Nguyen province for illegal transportation of drugs hidden inside two boxed sent from Germany to Ha Noi; seized 4,454.29 gram as MDMA synthetic drugs and 1,073.00 grams of ketamine on February 24 in Tan Trieu District, Ha Noi city.

Earlier, Ha Noi Customs Department and relevant units tackled two action plans EM 620 on June 19, 2020 and DE 920 on September 3, 2020 for trafficking drugs from Germany to Vietnam via international express delivery and postal services.

In the action plan EM620, competent forces detected five boxes of goods suspected as drugs sent from Germany to Vietnam. Through investigation, the competent forces arrested three suspects and seized 18,697.55 grams of synthetic drugs MDMA.

In the action plan, competent forces detected three shipments sent from Germany to Vinh Phuc province and Nam Dinh province with suspicious signs. During investigation, the competent forces arrested three suspects in drug rings, and seized 7,393.12 grams of MDMA and 392.41 grams of ketamine.

Continue to promote effective coordination

In addition to the direction from leaders at all levels, the mobilisation of synergy in tackling action plans on drug, especially action plans on the fight against drugs transported from abroad to Vietnam via airway, express delivery and postal services has promoted efficiency in drug crime prevention, contributing to curbing the increase in drug crime.

The Anti- drug Enforcement Team has advised the department’s leaders in developing plans on drug prevention and combat in line with reality, especially identifying targeted areas. It regularly organises training to raise awareness, responsibility, qualifications and skills on drug prevention and combat for customs officials who perform customs clearance. Coordination and mutual assistance in exchanging, discovering, processing, verifying information, developing and combating drug-related crimes has promoted efficiency.

The team continues to enhance the efficiency of coordination in combating drugs and signs coordination regulations between the Police and Customs forces in combating drug-related crimes in the new situation, and equipped some specialised devices to enhance the efficiency of drug inspection and detection.