Ho Chi Minh City customs officials have seized about one kilogram of drug precursors disguised in two boxes as dissolved tea, the latest in a string of uncovered cases in which drugs or drug precursors were camouflaged to be sent to receivers in Australia.

> Vietnam customs officials detect 1.5kg of drug precursors camouflaged as spicy salt>> 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 two samples of the powder sent to it for testing are Pseudoephedrine, a drug precursor.

The tested samples were transferred by the HCMC Express Delivery Customs Sub-Department on Tuesday after it identified suspicious signs from the two boxes of ‘tea’ weighing about one kilogram the same day. The sub-department then took a sample from each box for a quick check and both tested positive with the reagent for Pseudoephedrine.

The agency therefore delivered another two samples to the criminal technique department for an official test. The ‘tea’ was part of a package that also contained a bag of dried cuttlefish and two packs of dried cashew nuts. The weight of the consignment was 2.9 kilograms. The consignor is an individual residing in Thoi Binh District, southern Ca Mau Province while the consignee lives in Australia. Over the past six months, the sub-department has continuously uncovered many similar cases, confiscating over 54 kg of drug precursors and 4.22 kg of heroin.

All of the consignees in these cases are in Australia. The most recent occurred on April 1, when the agency’s staff discovered more than one kilogram of drug precursors stashed in a box of ‘salt, chili and lemongrass’ weighing 1.5 kilograms. The agency sent a sample of the ‘spicy salt’ to the criminal technique department for an official test whose results showed it was Pseudoephedrine. 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. On February 12, this agency found over 4 kg of heroin was secreted in 40 tubes of ‘medicated oil’ en route to the same country.

The total weight of the drugs was 4.22 kg, valued at about VND15 billion (US$707,000).

On December 8 last year, customs officers at the sub-department detected a drug precursor in several bottles of shampoo and hair dye, posted by air to the Australasian country by a person in the southern province of Kien Giang.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!