Son La Provincial Police and Hua Phan Provincial Police (Lao PDR) signed a memorandum of understanding in 2023.
Son La Province shares a 274km border with the two Laotian provinces of Houaphanh and Luang Prabang. Recently, the police forces of the three provinces have strengthened their cooperation in various operational tasks, proactively combating various crimes, with a particular focus on the fight against drug trafficking.
Currently, the fight against drug crimes on the border is facing many difficulties, the subjects operate very sophisticatedly, cunningly, and often change their methods and tricks. Colonel Tu Song Pat Chai, Director of Luang Prabang Provincial Police, said: The situation of drug crimes on the Son La - Luang Prabang border is still very complicated, they often take advantage of small-scale routes in the border area to transport drugs from the "Golden Triangle" area into Vietnam or to third countries for consumption, during the process of operation, the subjects are extremely reckless, reckless, and fiercely fight back when surrounded and arrested by the police force.
In the face of the above situation, implementing the memorandum of understanding between Son La Police and the Police of Northern Laos provinces, the parties have maintained a good information exchange mechanism, grasped the movement of the subjects; advised local authorities to develop plans and strategies for crime prevention right from the grassroots level. At the same time, coordinated to launch many high-point attacks, destroy many lines and groups, especially in the work of preventing and combating drug crimes, since the beginning of 2022, they have discovered and coordinated to arrest 08 cases, 11 drug criminals, seized nearly 38,000 synthetic drug pills, 03 military guns, 105 bullets and many other related exhibits.
Typically, on July 22, 2022, on National Highway 6A, the border section between Xam Neua and Vieng Xay districts. The cross-border drug prevention task force of Son La Provincial Police in coordination with the Hua Phan Provincial Police Department successfully broke up a case and caught two subjects: Vang De Mua, 52 years old and Kia Vang, 47 years old (the two subjects are husband and wife) both residing in: Ban Huoi Nha, Vieng Xay District, Hua Phan Province (Lao PDR) for the act of "illegal transportation of drugs". Seized evidence: more than 24,000 synthetic drug pills, 24.4 grams of heroin, 01 block of opium, 1.3 million kip and some other related evidence.
The subjects Vang De Mua and Kia Vang were arrested by the Son La Provincial Police and the Hua Phan Provincial Police (Lao PDR) for the act of "Illegal drug transportation".
In parallel with the work of ensuring security and order, in recent times, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam has implemented the policy of building headquarters for the Lao Police in border villages bordering Vietnam. Son La Provincial Police has focused on building and handing over 51 police headquarters in border villages in 5 districts of the two provinces of Hua Phan and Luang Prabang. Thereby, helping the grassroots police officers and soldiers feel secure in their work, effectively implementing the work of ensuring security and order on the border.
To improve the effectiveness of coordination in the field of security and order, Son La Provincial Police continue to implement cooperation documents signed with the Police of Northern Lao provinces; effectively implement cooperation plans to combat cross-border crimes, focusing on transnational drug crimes.
Major General Nguyen Ngoc Van, Director of Son La Provincial Police, informed: In the coming time, in order to effectively prevent drug crimes on the Vietnam - Laos border, Son La Provincial Police and the Police of the provinces of the Lao PDR sharing the border will continue to increase information exchange via hotlines as well as direct exchanges between leaders of units to grasp developments in drug crimes. Verify information about leaders of major drug rings, create conditions and support each other when required to fight and arrest drug criminals. Due to the long border, the fight against drug crimes still has many difficulties, so to fight against drug crimes more effectively, it requires the functional forces of the two countries to make more efforts in coordination and implement well the contents of the meetings. In addition, it is necessary to meet regularly to promptly discuss and exchange necessary issues in the fight against this type of crime.
Cao Thien - Trung Hieu (Provincial Police)