Police at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City have arrested a Philippine woman for illegally bringing drugs from Brazil into Vietnam.

>> Filipino man held for possession of 3.6 kg of cocaine at airport 44-year-old Mazon Donna was detained after police found 1.6 kilograms of cocaine hidden among clothes and other items in her luggage when she arrived at the airport on December 31, 2013 on a flight from Brazil with a transfer in Qatar. The woman told police that she had been hired by another Filipino woman to go to Brazil to carry the cocaine from Sao Paolo to Vietnam for US$3,000. Police are continuing to investigate the drug trafficking case in which Mazon Donna is charged with “illegally transporting drugs.” 

Recently, police and customs officers at the airport have intercepted many drug trafficking incidents committed by foreigners.

On October 26, 2013, customs officers at the airport caught two Australian nationals carrying 3.5 kilograms of heroin. Six days earlier, a 26-year-old Chinese woman, Li Chunying, was found carrying 2.2 kg of methamphetamine hidden in her luggage when she arrived at the airport on October 20. On August 18, fifty-year-old De Santos Kevin William, an Australian man, was caught hiding 1 kg of methamphetamine on his calves when he arrived at the airport. Under Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine are given a death sentence. The capital penalty is also applied to those who are indicted for producing or selling 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics.