Police in Ho Chi Minh City recently requested the municipal People’s Procuracy to prosecute a Vietnamese-Canadian man for allegedly operating a transnational drug ring in Cambodia and Vietnam. 

The request named 40-year-old Vietnamese-Canadian Chu Ba Chung, who went by the name Long, and five accomplices: Truong Ngoc Mai, 27, Do Thi Minh Tam, 39, Tran Kim Loan, 52, Mai Thi Ngan, 30, and Nguyen Vu Khai Hoang, 29.

Mai, Tam, and Loan are Ho Chi Minh City residents while Ngan resides in the southern province of Bac Lieu and Hoang lives in south-central Vietnam’s Binh Dinh Province.

Hoang’s charge includes illegal drug transport while the request for indictment of the other four involves the sale of narcotics.

The request was made following the completion of a second probe into the drug ring carried out by city police.

The first probe was carried out in 2022. 

Mai was first taken into police custody in September 2022, when police officers caught her carrying 11.9 kilograms of methamphetamine on her motorcycle during a traffic stop in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City.

Mai confessed that Chung had hired her to deliver the drugs to buyers.

Police then searched Mai’s two houses in the city where they confiscated nearly 84 kilograms of heroin, methamphetamine, ketamine, and ecstasy from the woman.

Based on Mai’s statements to police, officers arrested Chung and accomplices Tam, Loan, and Ngan.

Further investigation found that in 2019, a man named Trai had hired Chung to store and deliver drugs sourced from Cambodia. In return, Trai paid Chung approximately US$200 per week.

Chung hired Mai in early 2020 to help collect the narcotics from Trai. By that point, the operation had grown quite large and Chung was able to pay Mai VND10 million ($408) per week.

According to statements given by the suspects, Mai had been collecting anywhere from five to 30 kilograms of narcotics each month.

Hoang was arrested in September 2022, when he was caught delivering 29.9 kilograms of methamphetamine and 10.4 kg of MDMA to Mai after receiving the drugs in Kon Tum Province, which borders Cambodia, from a man named Thach. 

Hoang confessed that Thach had employed him to transport the drugs by car to Ho Chi Minh City for VND100 million ($4,080), which was deducted from the debt Hoang owed Thach.

Police have so far confiscated over 100 kilograms of narcotics sourced from Cambodia and transported to Vietnam by road.

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