Drug Trafficking across Vietnam’s Borderland Areas
Vietnam Background
Geography and its Impacts
Climate and its Impacts
Structured Population and its Impacts
Drug Trafficking in Mainland Southeast Asian Region
Drug Production, Consumption and Trafficking: An Overview
Laos Illicit Drug Markets
Drug Concerns in Vietnam
Transnational Narcotics Trafficking
Family-based Structure and Fellow-Countrymen Association
Group Size
The Central Actors
Adaptation and Flexibility
Age and Responsibility
Family-Based Structures
Fellow-Countrymen Associations
Ensuring Trust for Co-offending
Establishing Close-Knit Community
Modus Operandi of Cross-Border Drug Trafficking in Vietnam
Preparation
Exploit Drug Sources
Sale-and-Buy Agreement
Protecting Drug Operations against Interdiction
Pre-activity
Pack-and-Conceal Process
Transporting
Activity
Exchange Processes
Cutting
Post-activity
Distribution
Illegal Profits
Barriers and Challenges to Combat Transnational Narcotics Trafficking
Porous Borders and its Blurred Points
Data Sharing and its Related Information
Incapacity of Building Cooperative Instruments
Uneven Distributions of Law Enforcement 1
Increased Transportation and Trade at Shared Borderlands
Initiative Issues to Combat Cross-Border Drug Trafficking
Initiative 1: Developing Human Resources at BLOs
Initiative 3: Encouraging Use of E-passport at Cross-border Checking Points
Conclusions
Organisational structure and modus operandi of CBDT in Vietnam
Challenges and its Initiative Priorities to Combat CBDT
Next Further Steps
References
Index
Hai Thanh Luong is Honorary Principal Research Fellow at Royal Melbourne Institute for Technology University, Australia.
This book presents the first detailed inquiry into the nature of cross-border drug trafficking between Laos People’s Democratic Republic and Vietnam using an exploratory approach, which draws upon qualitative and quantitative methods. It draws from case studies, interviews and survey data from criminal investigation police and drug-related crimes officers (CIPDRC) from six border provinces which are directly and indirectly involved in investigating these cases. The findings indicate that drug markets in Vietnam are not controlled by monopolistic, hierarchical organizations or ‘cartels’ but small structures, based on family ties and fellow-countrymen relations, which are are fluid and loosely organized. They are very adaptable and sophisticated with diverse modus operandi and multiple divisions of labour which present particular challenges to law enforcement agencies.