Vietnam arrests three Australians for heroin trafficking

Jun 13, 2008, 5:47 GMT

Hanoi - Police in Vietnam have arrested three Australians of Vietnamese ethnicity for smuggling heroin, an official said Friday, raising the number of Australians arrested in the country for drug crimes to four in less than two weeks.

Anti-narcotics forces in Ho Chi Minh City arrested Tran Bich Phuong, 28, and Lam Mong Chinh, 25, at a hotel early Thursday morning with 20 packs of heroin, according to Duong Van Thuong, a senior official in the city's Anti-narcotics Department.

The two told the police they had been hired to transport the heroin to Australia for 200,000 Australian dollars, local newspaper Tuoi Tre reported.

A third woman was arrested Thursday at the city's Tan Son Nhat Airport while about to board a plane to Australia. Police found a plastic bag containing 250 grams of heroin in her anus.

'We are expanding the investigation in these cases, as more people may be involved,' said Thuong.

Earlier this month, Vietnamese police arrested another Australian woman of Vietnamese origin for smuggling heroin.

Tran Thi Ngoc Dung, 35, was arrested in a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City after doctors found two bags of heroin hidden in her anus. Dung was hospitalized as she was about to leave for Australia when one of the bags broke, causing her to lose consciousness and stop breathing.

Trafficking or transporting 600 grams or more of heroin is punishable by death in Vietnam.

Several Vietnamese-Australians have been sentenced to death in recent years for drug crimes, but so far none has been executed. Several have had their sentences commuted to life in prison.

Vietnam has sentenced 11 people to death for drug crimes this year.