Biggest heroin bust made in Taiwan in 10 years

22 August 2012
The Standard (Hong Kong)

Taiwan seized 80 kilograms of heroin in its biggest bust of the drug in the past 10 years, arresting seven people involved in smuggling it from Cambodia, officials said Wednesday.

Agents uncovered the drugs early Monday after they boarded the Hung Chi Yu No 7, a fishing boat, in the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines, according to a spokesman from the Bureau of Investigation, AFP reports.

"With the help of US-based high-tech satellite technology, we had been able to monitor the vessel from the moment it left Cambodia,'' the spokesman said.

He said it was the largest heroin smuggling case uncovered by the bureau since 2002 when it confiscated 120 kilograms.

Heroin disguised as hair dye smuggled into Springvale, court told

April 16, 2012
Norrie Ross
Herald Sun (Australia)

TWO Cambodian men appeared in court today charged with importing 65 kilos of heroin into Victoria in herbal hair dye sachets.

Magistrate Lance Martin was told that Sambath Sok, 32, and Chhodaphea Kev, 38, had limited English and it was the first time they had been in custody.

The men were arrested last Friday as a result of a joint investigation between the Federal Police and Customs and Border Protection.

Man arrested for smuggling ecstasy into Vietnam from Cambodia

2/4/2012
By Ngoc Tho, Thanh Nien News

Police in the southern province of Tay Ninh said Friday that they had arrested a man for allegedly smuggling illicit drugs into Vietnam from Cambodia.

According to police, Truong Chi Hoa, 51, entered Vietnam illegally Wednesday evening, riding into Tay Ninh from Cambodia on a motorbike.

He then boarded a taxi headed for Ho Chi Minh City, but the cab was pulled over by police officers at a checkpoint at the Moc Bai junction in Ben Cau District.

Cambodian man arrested for smuggling drugs

SA KEAO, July 14 (MCOT online news) - A Cambodian migrant worker was arrested on Thursday alleged to have attempted the smuggling of nearly 6,000 methamphetamine pills worth Bt3 million into Thailand.

The Cambodian detainee was identified as Mai Siang, who claimed to work as a cleaner at Tesco Lotus hypermarket in the eastern province of Rayong.

The suspect was arrested while crossing from Poi Pet, Cambodia, to the Thai side at the Aranyaprathet border crossing. On inspection Thai officers discovered two large plastic bags containing 5,960 methamphetamine pills and 99.86 grammes of crystal methamphetamine, also known as 'ice'.

Cambodian woman arrested for importing heroin pellets to Australia inside her body

Man charged with importing heroin

June 10, 2010
AAP

A 49-year-old man has been charged with trying to import heroin into Australia in his shoes.

The man, from Cabramatta in Sydney's west, was searched by customs officers after arriving in Sydney on a flight from Vietnam on Wednesday.

"Officers found a substance in his shoes. Initial testing indicated the presence of heroin," a joint statement from Customs and Border Protection and the Australian Federal Police said.

Advertisement: Story continues below"Further forensic testing will be undertaken to confirm the exact weight and purity of the substance."

The man was due to appear in Sydney Central Local Court on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a 37-year-old Cambodian woman has been charged with importing drugs after arriving in Australia with her partner on a flight from Bangkok on Sunday.

Both were stopped by customs at the airport after officers became suspicious they may have been concealing drugs internally.

They were taken by Australian Federal Police to hospital for medical examinations.

"It will be alleged in court that the woman passed 170 pellets of a substance believed to be heroin," the agencies said in a statement.

The woman was due to appear in Sydney Central Local Court on Thursday.

A 31-year-old Cambodian man faced court on Wednesday on drug importation charges.

The maximum penalty for importing a marketable quantity of heroin is 25 years' jail and/or a $550,000 fine.

Large quantity of hashish (Marijuana) smuggled from Cambodia to London seized in India

Cops scuttle Rs 43-cr ‘trip’ of hashish smuggler

02 Nov 2009
Express News Service

BANGALORE: Hashish worth Rs 43 crore was seized by the Bangalore City Police, Immigration Branch, when the narcotics were being smuggled from Cambodia to London at the Bengaluru International Airport.

The hashish weighed around 43 kg.

Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari told reporters that the case was detected when the Immigration police checked the baggage of three foreigners who were proceeding to board Emirates Airline Flight (No: EK5 567) at 6.30 pm on Sunday to Dubai.

The accused were identified as Marke (50), a native of Poland, Ruby Walter (40), a Swiss and John Touchler (45), a citizen of Austria. They were scheduled to fly further to London by the same plane, Bidari said.

Investigations revealed that the accused John Touchler came to New Delhi from Nepal, where he met the other two accused.

They reached Bangalore on Sunday afternoon by Karnataka Express train and from the railway station, they proceeded to BIAL.

They picked up the narcotics from Cambodia.

Cambodia-Vietnam drug and gun ring suspects indicted

Monday, June 15, 2009
Thanh Nien News (Hanoi)

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court received indictments for 15 people accused of involvement in a trans-Vietnam-Cambodian drug and gun trafficking ring this week.

City police began arresting suspects in the case in July, 2007, rounding up the last of the 15 in August last year. The city People’s Procuracy, the municipal prosecutors’ office, prepared the indictments.

The gang had moved dozens of 350- gram heroin blocks and thousands of crystal methamphetamine, or ICE, tablets through the Cambodian border to Ho Chi Minh City since 2005, according to investigators. Court documents also allege the group had moved the contraband to the neighboring coastal city of Vung Tau as well.

In 1994, former prison guard Nguyen Tan Duy helped Le Hoang Hoi escape from Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s Xuyen Moc Prison, where Duy had previously worked, according to police reports. The two fled to Cambodia and began dealing in drugs there, said police.

They opened a café in Phnom Penh where they received heroin from Nguyen Van Binh, according to the indictment. They then sold the contraband to Le Thi Anh Dao, a tobacco smuggler with experience breaching the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, and Nguyen Thi Ngoc Nga, a dancer in Phnom Penh, said the indictment.

Nga resold her goods to several drug dealers in Vietnam, including Tran Dinh Tam, Tran Minh Quang and Truong Quoc Thang, all of whom she is also accused of supplying K59 handguns to, said investigators.

In September 2006, Tam asked Nga for a handgun and she introduced him to a man named Bay Viet, another of Nga’s drug suppliers, who sold him a pistol for US$600. Viet is wanted by police but has yet to be apprehended.

In October, Nga helped Quang buy a pistol and eight bullets from Hoi.

Quang lent the gun to his friend Vu Manh Hung to repay a debt, but Hung was then caught with the gun by police.

In 2007, Thang asked Nga to help him get a similar gun. Nga then sold Thang a gun she had bought from Hoi for $600. Hoi had bought the gun from Duy for $320. Duy had bought the gun at a Cambodian market for $300.

Police have seized Thang’s pistol, but not Tam’s.

The trial’s start date has yet to be released.

Reported by Le Nga

22 years for Taiwanese heroin smuggler in Cambodia

October 28, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

A Cambodian court has sentenced a Taiwanese man to 22 years in jail for trying to smuggle heroin out of the country.

Judge Chhay Kong at Phnom Penh Municipal Court says he sentenced Liao Ichun after finding him guilty of trying to smuggle 240 grams of the drug into Taiwan.

A number of Taiwanese nationals have been detained and jailed for trying to smuggle heroin through the airport in the Cambodian capital over the past year.

Although drug arrests have increased, Cambodia is becoming an increasingly popular trafficking point for methamphetamine and heroin, particularly since Thailand toughened its stance on illegal drugs in 2002.

Drug mules returning from Cambodia arrested in southern Taiwan

By Han Nai-kuo

Taipei, Sept. 19 (CNA) - The Criminal Investigation Bureau announced Friday that a police task force had arrested two drug mules returning from Cambodia a day earlier and seized 835 grams of pure heroin.

A spokesman for the bureau said that the task force -- formed after police received tips about a cross-border drug trafficking ring -- consisted of officers from the bureau's third brigade and police units in Keelung, northern Taiwan, and in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.

After learning that the ring's leader, a 45-year-old man identified by the surname Hsiang, went to Cambodia again with his girlfriend from China on Sept. 10, the task force began to place them under surveillance.

Upon their return at Kaohsiung International Airport Thursday, the couple were subjected to a body search, leading to the discovery of 835 grams of pure herion in the heels of the shoes of Hsiang's girlfriend, identified by her surname Li.

According to the spokesman, the trafficking ring has brought at least NT$100 million worth of heroin into Taiwan by using people with no criminal records as drug mules, paying each of them NT$100,000 for a successful trip, plus an all expenses-paid holiday in Cambodia.

After returning from Cambodia, the drug mules would ride a high speed train from Kaohsiung to Taoyuan in northern Taiwan to deliver the drugs to members of Hsiang's ring, the spokesman said.

The Criminal Investigation Bureau is still trying to track down the other members of the drug ring.