Vietnam seizes biggest drug haul from Asian ring

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese police found tonnes of hashish covered by jeans in cartons shipped from Pakistan en route to China in what they described as Vietnam's largest drug haul, newspapers reported on Thursday.

The 8.8 tonnes of cannabis resin had a street value of nearly $90 million, several state-run newspapers quoted anti-narcotics police officers as saying about the seizure on Monday in a warehouse in Mong Cai town on the border with China.

Vietnam has strict drug trafficking laws, including in some cases the death penalty, but it has long been used as a transit point for trade in heroin, hash, opium, amphetamine pills and other illegal drugs.

Police detained five people carrying Indonesian or Chinese passports on suspicion of being owners of two containers used to transport cannabis resin, also known as hashish.

The hash was covered by jeans in 400 cartons, police said. Cannabis resin is derived from the Cannabis sativa plant and is usually smoked.

"This is the biggest volume of drugs transported into Vietnam by sea," the Anti-Drug National Committee said.

The shipment came from Pakistan to Vietnam's northeastern city of Haiphong, the nearest port to China.

In February, a government review of drug-related crimes and trafficking said border provinces have strengthened cooperation with officials in neighbouring countries to prevent the transport of drugs.

In the past decade, police broke 245 drug trafficking rings with 26,597 offenders, including 61 dangerous fugitives, a Voice of Vietnam Radio report of the review said.