Seized ketamine and ecstasy at a police station in HCM City (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Crimesrelated to drug dealing and trafficking had been on the rise in HCM City inrecent years, said Dinh ThanhNhan, deputy head of the citypolice.
He made the statement at a meeting held in the city on October 4 to review drug prevention and control work.
Since 2010, the city has detected more than 15,500 drug-related cases andarrested 31,000 people.
In the first nine months of this year, police dealt with more than 1,278 drugcases and detained 3,000 people, an increase of 147 cases and 528 suspects incomparison with last year.
Around 331kg of heroin, nearly 1.3 tonnes of synthetic drugs of varioustypes, 16kg of marijuana and 1.4kg of cocaine was seized during that time.
Nhan said the quantity of seized synthetic drugs hadincreased 105.8 percent per year on average in the past five years.
“Drugs have become a threat to the development of the country, harmingpeople’s health and leading to many types of dangerous crimes,” Nguyen Thien Nhan, secretary of HCMCity’s Party Central Committee, was quoted by Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper as saying.
Prevention and detoxification measures in HCM City had not been effective.
Nhan said this was due to a number of reasons including ahike in global drug crime and a lack of synchronisation between legal systemand drug prevention work.
He said local authorities had not paid adequate attention to the issue, anda lack of resolve to do something about it was also a problem.
Effective measures should be adopted to prevent drug trafficking in Vietnamand stop it from becoming a drug transit hub, Nhan said.
It was also necessary to improve detoxification and post-detoxificationmanagement.
“It's a must for HCM City toimplement a project on drug prevention and control which is relevant to thelatest situation,” Nhan said./.
