Vietnam nabs Cambodian carrying 5.2 kg of drugs

Part of the drug seized by Tan Son Nhat airport customs officers on March 31, 2012 (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Mon, April 23, 2012
Tuoitrenews

Police at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City have detained a Cambodian woman for bringing 5.2 kg of drugs from Benin, a West African country, to Vietnam, where she would have taken a road trip to Cambodia.

35-year-old Hom Kosal was caught hiding an amount of white powder in her suitcase when she arrived at the airport last Saturday on flight QR608 from Qatar, where she transited after departing from Benin.

The powder was immediately sent to the Criminal Technical Institute for testing and the results showed that it was methamphetamine, a kind of synthetic drug, police said.

Kosal told police that she was hired by a man to bring the drugs from Benin with transit in Vietnam, for US$2,000.

Cambodian held at airport with over 1kg amphetamine

10 Sep 2008
The Times of India

CHENNAI: The city's notoriety as a major transit point in the smuggling of hardcore drugs and psychotropic substances is growing. Customs and directorate of revenue intelligence officials regularly seize heroine, ketamine and other psychotropic substances, meant mainly for smuggling to the Far East.

On Monday, sleuths of the air intelligence unit of Chennai customs intercepted a Cambodian national about to board a flight to Bangkok and seized 1.05 kg of amphetamine, worth around Rs 20 lakh in the international market. Son Piseth was then arrested and remanded.

The air intelligence unit personnel, engaged in profiling the passengers of a Thai Airways flight, found Piseth's movements suspicious and detained him for interrogation.

"A check of his hand baggage did not reveal any contraband. We then recalled the checked-in baggage and found the inner clothesline of the suitcase tampered with. We cut it open and found the fibre bottom also tampered with. The contraband was filled in two polythene covers and spread as thin layers inside the fibre bottom. The white powder found inside the polythene cover was amphetamine," customs commissioner Parminder Singh Sodhi said.

Piseth, during the interrogation, admitted that he had attempted to smuggle the drug to Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, via Bangkok for $1,000.

According to his passport, Piseth visited New Delhi five times earlier and, according to his own confession, carried out smuggling operations on all five occasions.

Amphetamine is a psychotropic substance that is abused on a large scale like ketamine . However, unlike ketamine, amphetamine is a scheduled drug that comes under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Popularly known as 'speed', 'ice', 'meth' and 'crank' in abuser circle, it is largely used as a recreational club drug and as a performance enhancer.

In recent months, the city has become a major transit point for the smuggling of ketamine and heroin to the Far East. However, this is first instance in six months that amphetamine is being seized. Amphetamine, which has medical uses, is a banned drug in the country due to its physical and physiological ill-effects.