Police have busted a Ho Chi Minh City – Hanoi drug ring responsible for transporting thousands of synthetic narcotic tablets concealed in dragon fruit from the southern metropolis.

The Department of Narcotic Crimes Investigation Police (C47) under Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security on Thursday announced that it had smashed a drug ring specializing in transporting synthetic drugs from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi for distribution in the country’s northern provinces.

After receiving a tip-off that suspects would be shipping the drugs by air on Monday night, C47 coordinated with airport security at Noi Bai International Airport in the capital to facilitate the bust.

Early Tuesday morning, police arrested three members of the drug ring shortly after their arrival at Noi Bai.

An on-the-scene luggage check found the suspects travelling with a checked bag filled with 15 suspicious-looking dragon fruits.

A closer examination revealed that 13 out of the 15 fruits contained plastic bags full of cylindrical blue tablets.

In total, police confiscated 5,000 suspected synthetic narcotic tablets from the traffickers.

Two additional tablet-filled bags were also found stashed inside a suspect’s bra while two others containing one kilogram of white powder, suspected to be ketamine, were concealed in a package of traditional Vietnamese ‘banh pia’ cakes in their luggage.

According to Colonel Bui Duc Thiem from C47, members of the drug ring constantly adjusted their methods of transporting the illegal drugs in order to avoid police detection.

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