Vietnam 600kg meth bust the latest in a string of big hauls as lawless ‘Golden Triangle’ and home-grown labs churn out narcotics

The one-party state is both a hub for drug use and also a popular thoroughfare for shipments of illicit narcotics

Opium and heroin are the drugs of choice among older users, but youngsters are increasingly turning to party drugs such as ecstasy, meth and ketamine which have flooded the market

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Vietnamese police arrange seized methamphetamine at a police station in Ho Chi Minh City after a huge drug bust in March. The latest bust was more than half a tonne. Photo AFP

Published: 3:21pm, 16 Apr 2019Updated: 10:19pm, 16 Apr 2019

Police in central Vietnam have seized more than half a tonne of methamphetamine in one of the largest drug busts in recent years in the communist country where synthetic drug use is on the rise.

Four people were arrested after police stormed a house in central Nghe An province where they found 600kg (1,300 pounds) of meth, some of it stuffed in speaker boxes.

The meth shipment was “about to be loaded onto trucks … for delivery”, according to a report from Cong An Nhan Dan, the official mouthpiece of the Ministry of Public Security, after the bust on Monday.

Dozens of police swarmed a house where the drugs were being stored, occupied by an elderly couple believed to be related to one of the dealers, according to state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper.

Police said they were investigating the source of the meth and where it was to be shipped to.

The bust follows a weekend seizure of 30kg of drugs in southern An Giang province, including about 18kg of meth that was stored in packages for tea and vitamin supplements.