Drug criminals' tricks are increasingly sophisticated
On June 20, 2025, in Quang Binh, the Customs Department held a conference to share experiences in drug prevention and control and precursor control. Deputy Director of the Customs Department Luu Manh Tuong chaired the conference, with the participation of representatives of the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department, 12 regional Customs Departments and many functional units under the Public Security, Border Guard and Coast Guard.
At the conference, delegates shared many effective models, difficulties and obstacles in practical implementation, especially in the context of increasingly sophisticated methods and tricks of drug criminals, with transnational elements, high technology and strict organization.
Statistics from December 15, 2024 to June 14, 2025, the Customs sector has detected 103 cases with 110 subjects, seizing nearly 2 tons of drugs - an increase of nearly 95% in volume compared to the same period last year, although the number of cases has decreased significantly. On the road, the Customs force discovered 70 cases with 91 subjects, seizing more than 1.67 tons of drugs. On the air route and express delivery, 339kg was seized from 33 cases. Common tricks are hiding drugs in food, goods sent for express delivery, hiring foreigners to transport, or using technology motorbike taxis to receive goods.
At sea, the subjects use the form of delivery in the border waters, releasing drugs flowing along the water, or hiding in buoys and packaging with GPS positioning to avoid detection by the authorities.
Synchronously deploy professional solutions
During the direction, the entire industry issued 01 plan, 01 topic, 02 decisions and 04 professional warnings to effectively control activities related to drugs and precursors. In particular, documents such as Plan 2618/KH-CHQ dated April 21, 2025 and Decision 58/QD-CHQ dated April 15, 2025 have promptly updated the new organizational model, in line with reality.
The coordination between the Customs and Police forces is increasingly tight, through conferences and professional meetings, notably the conferences on April 3, 2023 and September 10, 2024 between the Customs Department and Department C04, focusing on removing obstacles in the coordination regime, handling exhibits, training officers and applying the "controlled delivery" mechanism.
In the first 5 months of 2025, the work of controlling legal activities related to precursors continued to be promoted. The total volume of imported precursors reached more than 149,000 tons and 2.82 million liters; exported nearly 30,200 tons and 429,000 liters. Through the review, the authorities discovered and initially handled 2 violations.
Some of the major difficulties today come from the constant change of chemical strains, complex dual-use properties, and the requirement of multi-sectoral control. Items such as Formic acid in animal feed, or household and industrial glue are also being reviewed and classified more clearly in terms of import and management conditions.
The application of information technology software in managing the import and export of chemicals and precursors is being encouraged and replicated. Through the conference, the Customs sector pledged to continue innovating methods, improving the effectiveness of detecting, handling drug crimes and controlling precursors in the coming time.
