Vietnam police busted 19,500 drug-related cases, detained 29,700 drug traffickers and seized 390.3 kilograms of heroin in 2012, according to statistics released at an international anti-drug conference for the Far East Regional Working Group held in Da Nang central city on Wednesday.

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The number of drug-related cases and drug traffickers in Vietnam in 2012 increased by 2,435 and 4,853 respectively compared with the same period of last year, the report said.

Lieutenant General Phan Van Vinh, head of Ministry of Public Security's Criminal Police Department, told the conference that the number of drug criminals in Vietnam has been on the rise and Golden Triangle, an area between Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, is still a major source of drugs in Vietnam.

International drug dealers still remain a complicated problem in Vietnam as many African drug dealers have been found hiring women in Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia into their operations to smuggle drugs into Vietnam through Noi Bai airport in Hanoi and Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City to avoid police suspicion.

There are currently about 170,000 drug addicts in Vietnam. Especially, drug criminals are becoming more aggressive as they are always ready to fight back with heavy weapons if their illegal activities are found.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security is going to organize a training course for local anti-drug police forces in Cua Lo district in Nghe An central province, which is jointly funded by US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and US western special forces.

Delegates attending the conference came from far-east IDEC members and observers from 19 countries and territories including Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong and Macau, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Timor Leste, Thailand and Vietnam.