Four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants were arrested upon touching down in Vietnam from France, after 11 kilograms of drugs, including ecstasy, cocaine, and ketamine, were found concealed in toothpaste tubes in their luggage. Photo: Vietnam News Agency Broadcast
A group of flight attendants from Vietnam Airlines has been arrested for suspected drug trafficking after 11.4 kilograms of drugs were found concealed in their luggage on a flight from France to Vietnam. The flight attendants, Vo Tu Quynh, Tran Thi Thu Ngan, Dang Phuong Van, and cabin manager Nguyen Thanh Thuy, were apprehended after touching down at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport from Paris on Thursday morning.
Customs officials at the airport flagged the attendants’ luggage as suspicious, with narcotics officers discovering 8.4 kilograms of gray tablets and 3 kilograms of white powder concealed in toothpaste tubes, Vietnamese authorities said on Friday. The substances were found to be ecstasy, cocaine, and ketamine, according to Radio Free Asia. According to local reports, the flight attendants appeared to be shocked when questioned by police. They claimed that a person in France had paid them 10 million Vietnamese dong ($424) to carry the packages in their luggage. The attendants, described by a Vietnam Airlines spokesperson as fairly young with limited work experience in the company, agreed to the deal without examining the packages carefully, claiming they were exhausted after a long flight.
8.4 kilograms of gray tablets were found in the toothpaste tubes. The flight attendants claimed that a person in France had paid them to carry the packages in their luggage. Photo: Vietnam News Agency Broadcast
Ho Chi Minh City police are currently investigating the flight attendants. Vietnam Airlines said on Friday that they had suspended the aircrew, local media reported. The airline did not immediately respond to VICE World News’ requests for comment by email and phone. Vietnam is widely known for having some of the harshest drug penalties in the world, where those convicted of trafficking over 100 grams of narcotics may be sentenced to life imprisonment or death. Since the start of the year, there have been eight cases of drug trafficking at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, which is Vietnam’s busiest airport. Officials have already confiscated nearly 15 kilograms of narcotics in the last three months, the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said.
In 2019, one cabin crew member from the Malaysian airline, Malindo Air, was arrested for working with a drug syndicate to smuggle $14 million worth of narcotics from Asia to Australian cities over a number of years.Despite its strict drug penalties, Vietnam is a trafficking hub for narcotics filtering through the Golden Triangle, one of the world’s largest drug-producing areas across Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. But significant shipments of drugs—most notably ecstasy—are mainly trafficked to the region from Europe. In January, Hanoi police found 98 kilograms of drugs, including MDMA and ketamine, concealed in boxes sent from Germany to Vietnam.Follow Koh Ewe on Twitter and Instagram.
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