Provincial border guards said they coordinated with the police to arrest Gia Duy Chung, 18 and Gia Ba Kenh, 17, who were traveling by motorbike on Highway 7 in Nam Can Commune, Ky Son District, Friday night.

When their motorbike was stopped, Chung and Kenh, both residents of Ky Son District, tried to fight back and escape, but were restrained and arrested.

A search of their backpacks found 12 packs of 330 grams each of heroin, one kg of meth and 54,000 tablets of synthetic drugs.

The young men said the drugs they got originated in Laos. They were hired by an unidentified Lao national to transport them from Nghe An to northern provinces for VND300 million ($13,000).

The case is being investigated further.

Vietnam is a key trafficking hub for narcotics from the Golden Triangle, an intersection of China, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar and the world's second-largest drug-producing area behind the Golden Crescent in South Asia.

The repeated seizure of huge amounts of narcotics has been happening despite the nation having some of the world’s toughest drug laws. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or cocaine or over 2.5 kg of methamphetamine could face capital punishment.