Police in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday said they had arrested three suspects, including two foreigners and one Vietnamese, after busting a drug trafficking ring that attempted to bring 184 bricks of heroin from the city to Taiwan.

The municipal police department has yet to announce the personal particulars of these suspects as their investigation remains underway.

The drug trafficking case was uncovered recently when a police team raided a rented room in a lodging facility in the city’s downtown District 1 after receiving tip-offs from different sources.

During the swoop, the team detected two foreigners living in the room without carrying out temporary residence registration procedures.

Police officers discovered 184 bricks of heroin concealed within suitcases, along with equipment and tools for processing, dividing, and packaging drugs hidden in the kitchen.

They also found empty cylindrical batteries intended for containing drugs.

The team confiscated all the heroin and related devices, and escorted the two foreigners to the police office for interrogation.

The suspects confessed that they had entered Vietnam via road border gates in the southwestern Vietnamese province of An Giang on March 15, and then moved to the city where they received the 184 bricks of heroin from an unknown member of their racket.

The foreigners said they had intended to stash the drugs in the empty batteries to avoid detection by customs officers at entry and exit points.

They told investigators that a Vietnamese had arranged the temporary residence for them in Ho Chi Minh City while they were waiting to receive the drugs.

After summoning and questioning the Vietnamese suspect, the city’s police also detained that person for investigation.

The municipal police are expanding their probe into the case and are hunting for the unidentified lynchpin.

In January-March, Ho Chi Minh City police discovered 813 drug cases and apprehended 2,019 individuals, nearly double the figures for both the number of cases and the quantity of detainees compared to the same period of the previous year.

Police officers seized 15.63 kilograms of heroin, more than 64 kilograms of marijuana, and 249.4 kilograms of synthetic drugs, along with 14 guns and many other related exhibits from these cases. 

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