HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Moreand more drug traffickers have turned to aviation to transport drugs inresponse to tighter security measures of local customs and police, officials said.

Pham Quoc Hung, Deputy Director of HCMCity’s Customs Department, told the Hai Quan (Customs) newspaper thattransporting drugs as airfreight packages and by express delivery has increasedfrom the beginning of the year as smugglers seek to circumvent customsinspections.

In the first nine months of the year,HCM City customs uncovered 14 cases of drug smuggling with a total of 28kg ofmethamphetamines, marijuana, and types of cocaine.

Customs officers at Tan Son NhatInternational Airport on September 19 detected three packages sent from the USto northern Hai Phong City, which raised suspicions of contraband content whenscreened.

They checked and found that the threepackages contained 7.3kg of marijuana flowers packed carefully in vacuum nylonbags and hidden in a used box of raisins. They also discovered manypackages of drugs hidden in clothes and personal belongings.

Hung said smugglers also put drugs intopackages which used to contain products, such as instant coffee, sesame or milkpowder, dried jackfruit and even cosmetics.

According to Huynh Nam, head of thecity’s drug control team, traffickers always change the way they hide heroin,for example by shifting to express delivery services.

Nam said not all customs officials havethe required experience and capability to find and prevent drug trafficking.

Customs officers have also heightenedtheir vigilance of export goods.

Recently, customs officers checked apackage of gifts including some clothes and shoes sent by a person fromsouthern Binh Duong province to Australia and found suspicious signs on theside of the carton. Cutting all four sides of the carton, the customsofficer discovered four packs of heroin, weighing over 900grams flattened intothe sides.

Nguyen Van Anh, deputy director of theExpress Delivery Customs Sub-Department, said that every day the departmentreceives more than 3,000 gift packages, 2,600 of which are import goods.

Anh said that customs officials constantlyupdate themselves on new methods traffickers use to conceal and smuggle drugs.

The HCM City Customs Department warnedthat after a lull of two years, drug traffickers have resumed efforts to seduceVietnamese women into serving as mules to transport drugs. The head of the drugcontrol team of HCM City Customs, Huynh Nam, said in August that a femaleteacher from Binh Thuan province was arrested for transporting drugs.

The customs officers detained the womanimmediately after she arrived on a flight from Brazil to HCMCity. According to her initial claim to customs, she was acquainted with aNigerian man through a social network. In late July, the Nigerian man senther some money to buy tickets to visit Brazil.

After that he asked her to bring a giftto his relative in HCM City. The woman was sure the gift package containedCDs and some clothes and put it into her luggage. At Tan Son NhatInternational Airport, the customs officers seized the gift package afterdiscovering cocaine hidden inside.

In the last five years, the airport’sCustoms Sub-Department had detected and arrested 52 suspects (including 32women, 19 of whom are Vietnamese nationals and 13 foreigners) on charges ofillegal transport of drugs.

Most of the offenders were seduced anddeceived by various tricks to transport drugs for African drug rings. “Weare very concerned about this issue and determined to tighten the management,”Hung said.-VNA