Vietnam charges police chiefs in drug case

Source: DPA
28/09/2010

Hanoi - A former police chief and his deputy in Vietnam's Central Highlands have been charged in the disappearance of cash and gold in a drug-trafficking case, a police official said Tuesday.

Nguyen Cong Chuc, 56, and Tran Duc Thinh, 44, former officials of the Buon Me Thuot city, were charged on Monday with "negligence of professional responsibility.

" The charges concern the seizure of cash and gold worth over 5,000 dollars in a 2005 drug bust which subsequently disappeared. "

We have suspended them from work," said Huynh Hue, director of the Dak Lak Provincial Police Department. "Whether or not they go to jail depends on the People's Supreme Procuracy's investigation."

The newspaper Thanh Nien reported the case stems from an incident in August 2005, when Buon Me Thuot police arrested four drug traffickers. Police seized 30 packets of heroin along with four taels (150 grams) of gold, a gold chain, a gold ring, and 17 million dong (over 1,000 dollars at the time).

In his report, Bui Vu Quoc Trong of the anti-drug police division, who led the arrests, stated police had seized only the heroin and 800,000 dong in cash.

In 2007, Dak Lak police inspectors reviewed the case and found Trong had faked the signatures of his superiors Chuc and Thinh on the report.

In 2008, Trong was sentenced to three years in prison. What happened to the missing valuables has never been clarified.

If convicted, Chuc and Thinh could face up to 12 years in prison.