Vietnam police exchange fire with cross-border drug traffickers
Police officers have killed one of 28 drug traffickers during a shootout and seized 56kg of heroin after detecting an armed drug trafficking group illegally entering Vietnam via the Vietnamese-Lao border.
Police in northwest Son La Province, which borders Laos to the west, on May 4 reported that they had found a drug trafficking group and surrounded them in Chieng Xuan Commune, Van Ho District, at 8:40 pm on May 3.
After finding themselves besieged, the drug traffickers repeatedly opened fire on police officers. Police then shot back at the group and killed one of them.
Taking advantage of the dark and complicated terrain, the drug traffickers tried to withdraw to Laos while still shooting at police.
They finally retreated, leaving behind four military-grade guns, 85 rounds of ammunition, and 10 backpacks that contained 160 bricks of heroin weighing about 56kg.
A similar incident occurred on March 7, when Son La police prevented an armed group from illegally bringing drugs into Vietnam via the same border.
During a gunfire exchange, police killed one drug trafficker, seized 40 bricks of heroin, a K59 gun, an AK assault rifle, and 39 bullets.
In late December 2014, Son La border guards also caught a Laotian woman and her two Vietnamese accomplices in a cross-border drug trafficking case.
The woman, whose name is translated into Vietnamese as Tenh Thi Sao, was discovered carrying 780 synthetic drug tablets on a motorbike from Laos to Son La’s Yen Chau District on December 25, 2014.
Sao told the team that two Vietnamese men had hired her to transport the drugs from Laos to deliver to them in Vietnam.
From the woman’s testimony, the team captured Luong Van Cam, 44, and Luong Van Cuong, 26, both residing in Son La’s Thuan Chau District.
After finding themselves besieged, the drug traffickers repeatedly opened fire on police officers. Police then shot back at the group and killed one of them.
Taking advantage of the dark and complicated terrain, the drug traffickers tried to withdraw to Laos while still shooting at police.
They finally retreated, leaving behind four military-grade guns, 85 rounds of ammunition, and 10 backpacks that contained 160 bricks of heroin weighing about 56kg.
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A similar incident occurred on March 7, when Son La police prevented an armed group from illegally bringing drugs into Vietnam via the same border.
During a gunfire exchange, police killed one drug trafficker, seized 40 bricks of heroin, a K59 gun, an AK assault rifle, and 39 bullets.
In late December 2014, Son La border guards also caught a Laotian woman and her two Vietnamese accomplices in a cross-border drug trafficking case.
The woman, whose name is translated into Vietnamese as Tenh Thi Sao, was discovered carrying 780 synthetic drug tablets on a motorbike from Laos to Son La’s Yen Chau District on December 25, 2014.
Sao told the team that two Vietnamese men had hired her to transport the drugs from Laos to deliver to them in Vietnam.
From the woman’s testimony, the team captured Luong Van Cam, 44, and Luong Van Cuong, 26, both residing in Son La’s Thuan Chau District.