HANOI MAKES RECORD KETAMINE HAUL OF RM87M

Drug, destined for Taiwan, found stashed in industrial-grade machinery, 4 arrested

VIETNAMESE police have seized half a tonne of ketamine worth US$21 million (RM87.5 million) in Ho Chi Minh City, a key transit hub that has seen record busts of synthetic drugs in recent weeks as narcotics gangs use its ports and air links to shuttle drugs across the region.

Three Taiwanese citizens and one Chinese man were arrested

in the weekend bust at a warehouse in the southern city according to state-run Thanh Nien newspaper yesterday.

More than 500kg of ketamine was found stashed in industrialgrade machinery, in an operation carried out after months of surveillance.

The ketamine was brought in overland to Vietnam and was destined for Taiwan, Thanh Nien reported.

State media said the cartel leader had received overland shipments from China, but the police would not confirm where the ketamine originated.

“The luxury drug is five times more expensive than other synthetics and is often consumed by the rich,” Major-General Pham Van Cac was quoted as saying.

The bust follows several other massive hauls in recent weeks of drugs believed to have been shuttled into the country from neighbouring Laos.

Police seized more than one tonne of highly-addictive crystal meth or “ice” and one tonne of ketamine in Ho Chi Minh City last month, arresting two Taiwanese and one Vietnamese man in the sting.

Earlier in the month, a separate bust of 1.5 tonnes of meth was discovered in central Nghe An province.

From meth cooks to traffickers, Taiwanese have long been active in Southeast Asia’s narcotics trade, shifting drugs — many from the lawless Golden Triangle region straddling Myanmar, Laos and Thailand — across the region and beyond.

Vietnamese police have said Ho Chi Minh City is increasingly becoming a hub for drug gangs as transport infrastructure has improved in recent years.