US embassy cable - 05HANOI1073

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 001073 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR, PGOV, VM, CNARC 
SUBJECT: Counternarcotics Efforts in Vietnam's NW Highlands 
 
Reftel: 04 Hanoi 1584 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  Lao Cai is a significant transportation 
route for narcotics between Vietnam and China, Provincial 
Counternarcotics Police Director Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen 
Xuan Ngoai told the Ambassador on April 23.  His unit, which 
receives some USG funding routed through the United Nations 
Office of Drug Control (UNODC) (reftel), has increased its 
quantity of drugs seized, but is not able to disrupt the 
rising flow of narcotics.  The province has been effective 
in countering poppy cultivation.  Lao Cai's success rate in 
treating narcotics users is only two to three percent, and 
the province seeks international advice on how to improve 
this.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Lao Cai Provincial Counternarcotics Police Director 
Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Xuan Ngoai told the Ambassador on 
April 23 that the province is susceptible to narcotics 
traffickers who exploit its long and open border with China, 
as well as its two border gates and rail and waterway 
connections.  The province has been designated by the 
Central Government as a "center of narcotics trafficking and 
consumption," which allows for special assistance for its 
efforts to deal with narcotics smuggling and use. 
 
3. (SBU) Lao Cai's counternarcotics efforts are controlled 
through an interagency task force that includes police, 
customs and border guard officers.  There are a total of 65 
police officers dedicated to narcotics interdiction and 
another 13 in the counternarcotics section of the border 
police.  The police have 15 officers specifically trained in 
drug interdiction efforts through programs in Hanoi and in 
France.  The Lao Cai police also cooperate with their 
counterparts across the border in China's Yunnan Province. 
In 2004 and 2005, the Lao Cai police made 172 drug-related 
arrests in 143 different cases, seizing 3.2 kg of heroin, 
8.4 kg of opium and 750 packets of assorted narcotics. 
 
4. (SBU) Lao Cai has three treatment centers and 2,367 
officially registered drug users, although officials 
recognize the actual number is likely higher.  About 60 
percent of addicts are ethnic minorities, who have a 
tradition of small-scale opium production for personal use, 
while 40 percent are addicts living in urban areas.  Opium 
has been the most widely used drug in the province, but 
heroin use is increasing rapidly.  To deal with drug 
consumption, authorities have focused on education, poppy 
eradication and treatment for drug users.  Eradication 
efforts have combined public awareness campaigns with a 
program to provide seedlings of new crops and animals as 
replacements for poppy cultivation.  As a result, poppy 
cultivation has ceased in Lao Cai, Ngoai claimed. 
 
5. (SBU) To treat addicts, Lao Cai has three centers, one of 
which receives some support from a United Nations project. 
In 2004, the province processed 440 drug users in these 
centers.  Treatment programs run for 12 months.  Lieutenant 
Colonel Ngoai estimated that the success rate for treatment 
is two to three percent, and said that, more than any other 
area, he needed international support and advice in 
improving drug treatment.  (Ngoai defined "success" as 
refraining from drug use for at least 12 months.) 
 
6. (SBU) Despite the province's efforts, Ngoai predicts that 
drug shipments will continue to rise in the region.  He 
noted that while the police are dealing with fewer cases 
than in the past, the total quantities they have seized are 
increasing.  Further, the number of drug users in the 
province is increasing, and the police have not been able to 
effectively disrupt drug trafficking rings. 
 
7. (SBU) Provincial leaders from the Northwest Highlands 
provinces of Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Lao Cai also provided 
some perspective to the Ambassador on narcotics production, 
shipment and use.  In Dien Bien, the People's Committee Vice 
Chairman claimed that programs to deal with poppy 
cultivation have resulted in the crop's being eradicated in 
the province.  The province has "aided" farmers in switching 
to growing corn instead.  Lai Chau provincial officials 
characterized the major narcotics shipment route in the 
region as being between Laos and Dien Bien Province.  Lai 
Chau has a single narcotics treatment center that gives 
addicts a two-week program and can help place them in 
special employment programs.  The People's Committee 
Chairman of Lao Cai Province noted that the region's long 
and porous borders made countering trafficking in narcotics 
difficult, and that foreign support in this area is welcome. 
 
MARINE