via CAAI News Media
April, 08 2010
HCM CITY – Viet Nam and Cambodia will work together more closely to control drug trafficking across their shared border, according to delegates attending a conference held yesterday in HCM City.
During the three-day conference on illicit cross-border drug trafficking, officials from the two countries exchanged information about techniques to control trafficking.
Sr Lt Colonel Hoang Anh Tuyen, deputy director of the Standing Office on Drug Control, said Viet Nam was ready to complete tasks in a memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries in November.
Under the MoU, Viet Nam will offer training to Cambodian officials in investigation techniques and the setting up of rehab centres for drug addicts. They will also share information about cross-border drug trafficking activities.
Major General Phorn Boramy, head of the executive department of Cambodia's National Authority for Combatting Drugs, said raw materials for drugs were often purchased from the so-called Golden Triangle area, which encompasses parts of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
Drugs are then manufactured in Cambodia and exported to third countries like Viet Nam.
Raw materials were often imported from northeastern provinces of Laos and sometimes sold to people in Viet Nam, Boramy said.
In recent years, more and more drugs are being manufactured in Cambodia.
Boramy said the two countries should share more investigative evidence and that Viet Nam should train Cambodia's drug trafficking staff.
Since 1998, several agreements on drug trafficking control have been signed between Viet Nam and Cambodia border provinces.
Since then, provinces have held regular meetings to exchange information on drug traffickers and their ever-changing scams.
Last year, police in Viet Nam's Long An Province and Cambodia's Svay Rieng Province discovered three trafficking cases and arrested five people.
Police in An Giang Province uncovered 156 cases, and Gia Lai Province 48 drug trafficking cases that were related to a trafficking ring in Cambodia.
At the meeting, the two parties pledged to increase information exchange, including establishing more drug control offices near the border and holding regular meetings for officers from the two countries.
Boramay said the three new liaison offices along the border between the two countries that have been set up were a timely reaction against increased drug trafficking activities.
This year, Viet Nam will organise a training course, which will include investigation skills and the tracing of drug origin as well as courses that exchange anti-narcotic experiences and monitor drug user rehabilitation.
To date, Viet Nam has established a total of nine border liaison offices for better drug control in provinces bordering China, Laos and Cambodia.
Since 2000, the office in Quang Ninh's Mong Cai has verified information on 53 people related to 25 drug trafficking cases, seizing 10kg of heroin and 157kg of cannabis. — VNS
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