International Cooperation to Prevent and Combat Transnational Drug Trafficking at Border Locations: A Case Study of Vietnam

Abstract

Vietnam has recorded as one of the new areas in the transnational flows of illicit at Southeast Asia. Locating at the close outbound of the Golden Triangle – the second hub of opium cultivation around the world, Vietnam has been impacting, directly or indirectly, on drug production, consumption, and trafficking in recent years. Meanwhile, at the current moment, in Vietnam, the situation of a drug crime has been experiencing complicated happenings with increasingly sophisticated, artful nature and artifice. This paper provides the overall background of Vietnam via clarifying a geographical feature to impact on borderlines on land and sea about the Southeast Asia region. Besides, the study analyses the picture of the current situation of drug trafficking in Vietnam, particularly focusing on trends and patterns of drug-related crimes in the borderland and on the sea routes among Vietnam and other shared borders, including China, Cambodia, and Laos. Main reasons to explain why Vietnam has been becoming as a transnational hub in the region that also assess carefully in the next section before demonstrating the role of Vietnam’s authorities to cooperate and collaborate with other nations to combat transnational drug trafficking. Some recommendations and proposals to improve the effectiveness of international cooperation to fight drug-related crimes are also called for further researches. Keywords: Drug trafficking; Borderland; Transnational Crimes; ASEAN; Anti-Narcotics Crime Investigation Police Department (ANCIPD); International Cooperation; Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs); Vietnam DOI : 10.7176/JLPG/85-24 Publication date :May 31 st 2019