Large-scale illegal drug production rings crack down in HCM City
Ho Chi Minh City police recently busted two illegal drug rings, arresting 15 suspects and seizing 520,000 MDMA pills and 120 kg of powder drug equal to one million crystal methamphetamine pills worth more than 200 billion VND (8.8 million USD).
HCM City (VNA) – Ho ChiMinh City police recently busted two illegal drug rings, arresting 15 suspectsand seizing 520,000 MDMA pills and 120 kg of powder drug equal to one millioncrystal methamphetamine pills worth more than 200 billion VND (8.8 millionUSD).
Police also seized seven cars,more than 10 billion VND in cash and other items.
The rings were tracked from 2016,under the direction of Major General Pham Anh Minh, Vice Director of themunicipal Public Security Department.
Initial investigations indicatedthat the drugs were provided by Tran Ngoc Hieu, born in 1981 in Hanoi, and VuTuan Phan, born in 1979 in Hai Phong. Hieu’s ring specialised in producingMDMA, while Phan’s group processes crystal meth.
Hieu’s facility is equipped with modernand automatic machines. After finishing a batch, he moves the facility to a newlocation, according to the police.
Earlier on December 17, 2016,police arrested Nguyen Van Son, a distributor of Hieu and Phan, while he wasdelivering 100 tablets of crystal meth in Binh Thanh district. The next day, theyraided Phan’s drug production facility in Tan Phong ward, District 7, seizingtwo suspects, 20,000 MDMA pills, 3.7kg of powder drug, 35kg of meth and 670million VND in cash.
On April 6, the police raided avilla in Phu My Hung residential area in District 7, discovering a drug warehouse.The same day, Hieu was arrested after landing in Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho ChiMinh City.
According to the police, Hieu’sfacility is the largest of its kind in Vietnam. Since early 2016, the facilityproduced more than 300kg of drugs.
Police said the production wasdirected and supervised by Hieu’s cousin, Nguyen Duc Ky Nam, an engineer bornin 1968 in Hanoi and residing in Phu Nhuan district.
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The seized MDMA pills (Photo: VNA) 
