One of eight Lao nationals is held behind a table of drugs seized at the Vietnam-Laos border on May 30, 2024. Photo by Quang Nam Border Guard
AFP
Vietnam border guards have arrested eight Laos nationals for trafficking nearly 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of illegal drugs into the country, state media reported on Thursday.
Three men and five women travelling in a car with a Laotian number plate were arrested at a border gate in Quang Nam province with 198 kilos of drugs in packets the size of tea bags.
Border guards and police confiscated 15.4 kilos of heroin and 181 kilos of other types of synthetic drugs, state-owned Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
Southeast Asia is a major centre for synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine, much of it produced in the border regions of Myanmar.
The mountainous 2,300-kilometre (1,429-mile) Laos-Vietnam border has long been a significant smuggling route.
Vietnam has notoriously tough drug laws, and in January, nine people were sentenced to death and two others to life in prison for their involvement in a trafficking ring from Laos.
