Australian arrested on drug charges in Vietnam

Mar 5, 2007, 7:15 GMT

Hanoi - An Australian citizen of Vietnamese descent has been arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport with more than one kilogram of heroin and could face the death penalty, a policeman said Monday.

The man identified as Tony Manh, 40, was arrested as he was aboard to board a plane to Sydney on Saturday night, according to Phan Quoc Thai, a Vietnamese airport policeman.

'We found 1.1 kilograms of heroin in his pants,' Thai said.

According to local Tuoi Tre newspaper, Manh is being investigated for suspected involvement in a international drug trafficking ring that has operated for many years. The ring uses Vietnam as a transit point to transport the drug to third countries by air.

Under Vietnam's draconian drug laws, trafficking in more than 600 grams of heroin is punishable by death. So far this year, the country has given death sentences to at least 15 drug traffickers.

Vietnam has been fighting its status as a major drugs transshipment point from the Golden Triangle of heroin production around the borders of Laos, Burma and Thailand as well as from Cambodia, a major marijuana producer

According to Vietnamese police, 15,384 people were arrested for drug trafficking in 2006. Authorities seized 244.7 kilograms of heroin, 117.4 kilograms of opium, 608 kilograms of marijuana and 36,000 methamphetamine pills.