Vietnamese border guards have commenced criminal proceedings against a Chinese national who was caught illegally bringing about 3kg of synthetic drugs from China into Vietnam last week.

>> Vietnam sentences Laotian brothers to death, life term for drug trafficking The Border Guard Station at the Mong Cai International Border Gate in Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh Province on Sunday said it has arrested and charged a 38-year-old Chinese man, Liu Yong Xiong, with “illegally transporting narcotics” pursuant to Article 194 of the Penal Code. Border guards apprehended Liu on April 30 after discovering that he was carrying 7,600 synthetic drug tablets and nearly 900 grams of methamphetamine while carrying out procedures to enter Vietnam at the station. The total weight of the drugs was about 3kg, border guards said, adding that the trafficker came from China’s Guangxi Province. The arrest was made with the aid of an anti-drug task force of the Quang Ninh Province Border Guards.  Liu told investigators that he had been hired by another Chinese national to bring the drugs from China to Vietnam and deliver them to a person in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi for VND50 million (US$2,315). Local border guards have handed Liu over to provincial police officers for further investigation. Two months ago, provincial police also arrested a Chinese national, whose name translates into Vietnamese as Tran Hoat Toan, for illegally transporting 14kg of synthetic drugs into Vietnam in a taxi cab. Toan, 48, who also hails from Guangxi, was caught hiding a handbag containing the drugs on the car floor, behind the driver’s seat. Under Article 194 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, twenty years of imprisonment, life imprisonment or capital punishment can be given to those who are convicted of illegally stockpiling, transporting, trading or appropriating heroin or cocaine weighing 100 grams or more. The same penalties are also given to those who commit the crimes in one of the following circumstances: opium resin, marijuana resin or coca plasma weighing five kilograms or more; marijuana leaves, flowers, fruit or coca leaves weighing 75 kilograms or more; dried poppy fruit weighing 600 kilograms or more; fresh poppy fruit weighing 150 kilograms or more; other narcotic substances in solid form weighing 300 grams or more or in liquid form measuring 750 milliliters or more.

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