Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Nov. 4 (VNA) -- Effective and practical are the words used in reports evaluating the cooperation between Viet Nam and the International Police Organisation (Interpol) since the country joined this international agency on this day eleven years ago.

Over the past decade, Viet Nam and Interpol have exchanged more than 20,000 pieces of information pertaining to individual criminals and organised gangs involved in drug-related, smuggling and other crimes.

The cooperation has actively contributed to Viet Nam's struggle for public safety and national security as well as the world's fight against terrorism and other crimes threatening global stability and development, according to Viet Nam's police officers.

Immediately after Viet Nam's accession, an Interpol-Viet Nam office was established in Ha Noi to serve as a coordinating centre for information exchange and the fight against international crimes.

Vietnamese police have worked closely with their colleagues from other countries to hunt down and arrest foreign criminals seeking hide-out in Viet Nam or criminals escaping from Viet Nam to take shelter in other countries.

For instance, in 1998 the close coordination between Viet Nam and Interpol led to the arrest of Bui Huu Tai, a Vietnamese-American, who had engaged in cross-border drug trafficking.

The Viet Nam-Interpol cooperation also led to offensives against Hong Kong-and Taiwan-based drug trafficking rings that had targetted Viet Nam in their effort to expand operations across the region.
The successful collaboration between Viet Nam and Interpol also led to the capture of Tran Hung Son, who sought shelter in the United States after having embezzled billions of Vietnamese dong from a rural road building project in Muong Te district, northwestern border Lai Chau province.

Son was kept under constant surveillance by Taiwainese police at the Taipei airport when he made a stop-over there and was arrested by police when he just stepped off his plane at Viet Nam's airport. The arrest was made as a result of close links with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Taiwanese police.

The arrest in Viet Nam of two American citizens, John Kevin Ruggio and David Tran, who used fake self-made credit cards to illegally draw 187,000 USD from Ho Chi Minh City-based banks, was resulted from these close ties.

Backed by Interpol, Vietnamese police also arrested Nguyen Ninh Kim, notorious for international business fraud in the U.S., Taiwan, Cambodia and Viet Nam, and Nguyen Hai Nam, kingpin of a Vietnamese crime syndicate operating in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.

Many crooked foreign business people have been unmasked as a result of the close bond between Viet Nam and other Interpol member countries.

They included Peter Jiang Pisan, an American national, who engineered deceptive moves in Hai Phong's export-processing zone, and Yugoslav citizen Radak, who mastermined a 9.5 billion USD fake business also in northern Hai Phong port city.

Viet Nam and Interpol have also launched joint efforts in the common struggle against terror.

Terrorist plots and moves by hostile overseas Vietnamese forces to attack Viet Nam's diplomatic missions in the Philippines, Thailand and the United States were frustrated thanks to timely information provided through Interpol information exchange networks.

Aseanapol, in which Viet Nam is also a member, has also played an important role in the fight against terror and other trans-national crimes.
Nguyen Tan Vinh, an American citizen of Vietnamese origin, carrying a passport under the name of Vo Van Duc, was arrested in the Philippines while preparing to bomb the Vietnamese embassy in Manila.

Vinh's testimony revealed a terrorist cell directed by Nguyen Huu Chanh, a reactionary living in exile in the U.S.

Vinh's elder brother, Duc, was arrested by the Thai police after he planted a bomb in front of the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok.

Since the September 11 incident in the U.S. last year, the world has united in the common fight against terrorism. Viet Nam and Interpol have kept each other informed regularly about the operations of crime rings and stepped up their joint struggle against international and regional organised crimes.

They are spearheading the regional efforts against terrorism, smuggling, trafficking in women and children, piracy on the high seas and money laundering, and cyber crime.

The police agencies remain vigilant against other forms of crime that affect the safety, stability and development of the region and throughout the world.

Prompted by Interpol cooperation, Vietnamese law enforcement agencies have recently prevented criminals from making fake passports, forged documents for illegal departure to France, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Korea, China-Taipei and Eastern Europe countries.