On Wednesday, customs officers at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City discovered over 2 kilograms of Pseudoephedrine, a drug precursor, hidden in food.

>> Drug precursor found hidden in shampoo, hair dye>> Drug precursors found stashed in baby wipes bound for Australia The value of the substance is estimated at around VND2 billion (US$98,000). The drug precursor was stashed in boxes and bags of various foods in a 96-kg package belonging to a Vietnamese man who arrived at the airport on Thursday. When carrying out customs procedures for the package, the man declared that it contained backpacks and clothes. However, after noticing signs of food inside the package, customs officers decided to open it for examination and then discovered the hidden Pseudoephedrine. According to airport customs, hiding drugs in everyday products is a new trick of drug traffickers, and similar cases have been uncovered recently. On December 8, 2013, the Express Delivery Customs Sub-department of HCMC detected a drug precursor in several bottles of shampoo and hair dye, which would have been sent by air to Australia as gifts. These bottles of shampoo and hair dye were packed with other items in a package weighing 11.5 kg.  The consignor was from southern Kien Giang Province, while the consignee was a Vietnamese expat living in Australia. On November 21, 2013, the same Sub-department discovered a similar case when its customs officers seized a package of baby wipes, weighing 17 kg, after finding it contained Epherin, a drug precursor, in an unknown quantity. A day later, customs discovered a package of seaweed and belly fat melting cream containing 1.6 kg of Pseudoephedrin, another drug precursor. Some days earlier, customs also detected 4 kg of Pseudoephedrin hidden in 20 cans of processed Tuyen Ky meat. All of these goods would have been sent to Australia as gifts if they had not been detected, customs reported.