HO CHI MINH CITY, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Police in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City have arrested 16 local people for producing nearly 300 kg of ecstasy worth some 9 million U.S. dollars.
The drug ring, led by Tran Ngoc Hieu, 36, from Hanoi, produced over a million pills of ecstasy worth over 200 billion Vietnamese dong (around 9 million U.S. dollars) from 2016 till mid-2017 in Ho Chi Minh City and other southern localities, police in Ho Chi Minh City's Binh Thanh district said on Friday.
They transported ecstasy pills from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and sold them at a retail price of around 190,000 Vietnamese dong (8.5 U.S. dollars) a pill.
Local police have detained Hieu and 15 of his accomplices, and confiscated over 10 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 450,000 U.S. dollars), seven cars, dozens of machines and equipment, and chemicals used to produce the narcotics.
According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty.
