Man swims across river from Cambodia, smuggling four kilos of drugs into Việt Nam

Liêm Văn Điều was captured along with plastic bags containing four kilos of drugs. — Photo cand.com.vn

ĐỒNG THÁP — 28-year-old La Văn Điều of Tân Hồng District, the southern province of Đồng Tháp, has been detained by the provincial police for smuggling 4kg of ketamine and methamphetamine into Việt Nam from the Cambodian border.

Officials also confiscated evidence consisting of four plastic bags, each weighing 1kg. The bags were light green, rectangular and sealed, with foreign lettering resembling tea packaging. After forensic testing, the bags were found to contain a total of 2,986.59gr of ketamine and 981.16gr of methamphetamine.

On October 14, the Drug Crime Investigation Unit of the Đồng Tháp Provincial Police announced an ongoing investigation into a drug smuggling network operating across the two countries' borders.

Preliminary investigations revealed that on the night of September 13, a task force comprised of officers from Dinh Bà International Border Gate Border Post, the Drug Prevention and Control Department of the Đồng Tháp Border Guard Command, Dinh Bà Customs, the Đồng Tháp Provincial Police Drug Investigation Unit, Tân Hồng District Police and Tân Hộ Cơ Commune Police was patrolling the Sở Hạ River area.

The task force caught Điều swimming across the Sở Hạ River from Cambodia to Việt Nam, carrying a black plastic bag. Upon stopping and searching the bag, authorities discovered the four plastic packages containing drugs.

During initial questioning, Điều admitted to being hired to transport the synthetic drugs from Cambodia to Việt Nam. Upon further inspection of the surrounding area, the task force found a motorbike, which Điều claimed as his own.

The authorities documented the incident, seized and sealed the related evidence and escorted the suspect to the Dinh Bà International Border Gate Border Post for further processing. They have since transferred the case, the suspect and the evidence to the Đồng Tháp Provincial Police for further investigation and legal proceedings. — VNS