Ho Chi Minh City customs officials have discovered more than one kilogram of drug precursors disguised in a box as spicy salt, the most recent in a string of similar cases uncovered since November last year in which drugs or drug precursors were intended for consignees in Australia.>> Over 4 kg of heroin disguised as medicated oil seized>> Drug precursor found hidden in shampoo, hair dye

The Ho Chi Minh City Police Criminal Technique Department concluded Thursday that the sample of a seeming salt, chili, lemongrass mixture sent to it for testing is Pseudoephedrine, a drug precursor. The tested sample was transferred by the HCMC Express Delivery Customs Sub-Department on April 1 after it identified suspicious signs from the ‘salt, chili and lemongrass’ blend stashed in a box weighing 1.5 kg. The sub-department then put a sample of the mix into a quick test and found it reacted with the solvent used for testing Pseudoephedrine. The agency therefore delivered another sample to the criminal technique department for an official test. The box was being shipped along with a bag of prawn crackers and a packet of dried shrimp, which all weighed 3.7 kg.   The package was declared as a gift sent by a person in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho to a recipient in Sydney, Australia.  City customs officers are coordinating with other competent agencies to handle the shipment.Similar tricks, same destination Many similar cases have been detected recently by the same sub-department, and the disguised shipments were all bound for recipients in Australia. On February 12, this agency discovered over 4 kg of heroin was secreted in 40 tubes of ‘medicated oil’ en route to Australia. The total weight of the drug was 4.22 kg, which was valued at about VND15 billion (US$707,000). On December 8 last year, customs officers at the sub-department found a drug precursor in several bottles of shampoo and hair dye, posted by air to the same country by a person in the southern province of Kien Giang.

Likewise, on November 21 the same year, the agency seized an unknown quantity of Epherin, also a drug precursor, tucked in a package of baby wipes weighing 17 kg.

A day later, sub-department customs officials discovered 1.6 kg of Pseudoephedrin hidden in a package of seaweed and belly fat melting cream.

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