Vietnam arrested three Australian women after authorities found heroin in the hotel room of two of them and in a packet hidden on the body of the third as she tried to board a plane home, state-controlled media reported Friday (13 June).Early Thursday (12 June), police arrested Trang Bich Hong, 28, and Lam Mong Chinh, 25, after finding heroin in their hotel room, Tien Phong (Pioneer) newspaper said.
Late Wednesday (11 June) they detained a woman, who was unidentified, at the airport in southern Ho Chi Minh City after authorities found 250 grams (0.5 pound) of heroin hidden in one of her body cavities.The newspaper said the three, all of Vietnamese origin, were being monitored by Australian police for several months for their suspected role in trafficking heroin from Vietnam.Police were not available for comment Friday and officials at the Australian Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City would not comment.
Last week, police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested another Australian woman of Vietnamese origin after she collapsed with heroin in her stomach.
Vietnam has some of the world's harshest drug laws. Possession of 600 grams (1.32 pounds) of heroin or more is punishable by death.
About a dozen Vietnamese-Australians have been brought to court in Vietnam for heroin trafficking in recent years.
At least four have had their death sentences commuted because of lobbying by the Australian government, which banned the death penalty in 1973. Vietnam has not executed any Australians for drug offenses. (AP)
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