The arrests were made in several Ho Chi Minh City raids since June.

Undercover investigators said they had evidence that at least four drug trafficking rings were led by Nigerians in Vietnam and had hired locals to carry drugs to China.

Police arrested 13 foreigners during the first raid last month in the city, including eight Nigerians, one Zimbabwean and one Filipino. Some 1.26 kilograms of heroin were seized in the raid.

The arrestees confessed they had transported the drug to China 13 times, with each shipment containing between 100-400 grams of heroin each, investigators said.

After the confessions and further investigations, police arrested Nigerian Nnaji David Ete, whom they say is the ring’s mastermind, and eight others.

Of the arrested, one was a local Vietnamese, 29-year-old Phan Thi Thanh Le, while the seven others were from either Nigeria or Zimbabwe.

Police said Ete had lived as Le’s husband in HCMC for five years.

Investigators said he had led the group to smuggle drugs into HCMC from India, Pakistan, Thailand and Malaysia.

The smugglers had allegedly divided the drugs into small packs and hid them in shirt buttons, shoes and hidden suitcase pockets. They had hired several Vietnamese to carry drugs to China, according to police reports.

Investigators said they had obtained confessions from Ete and Le for 19 cases of smuggling drugs to China. They also had allegedly elicited confessions for six other smuggling cases by Le alone.

On June 18, police arrested Nguyen Thi Hanh from HCMC’s District 10 and two others carrying drugs when they were about to board a flight to China. The 871 grams of the drug were hidden in the buttons of 11 pieces of clothing, said police.

Police later arrested two others accused of involvement in the smuggling ring: Chime Chidike of Nigeria and Tersita Guiyab Nepomucen of the Philippines.

Police from the Ministry of Public Security are following up on investigations into the cases.

In Vietnam, possessing, trading or trafficking more than 600 grams of heroin or 20 kilograms of opium are punishable by death.

In related news, police also said the Vietnam Embassy in Iran had informed them that a Vietnamese woman had been arrested there for trafficking three kilograms of drugs.

Thirty-six-year-old Nguyen Thi Thanh, an employee of a company in HCMC, was arrested on June 28 at an airport in Iran when police found she was carrying the drugs.

Thanh had called the Vietnam Embassy in Iran for help, saying a Nigerian in HCMC named Hillary had asked her to carry the drugs to Iran, police said.

By Bao Thien - Thanh Nien News - July 17, 2009