L
SOUTH
JUNE
CHINA MORNING POST
5th
73
11JxK19/3
Vietnam navy scours sea in opium harvest
Saigon, June 4. The South Vietnamese Navy today searched for more sealed packages of opium, after nearly a ton of it was found floating in the Gulf of Thailand yesterday.
The navy
reported scouring the beaches and sea off the Mekong Delta.
was
U.S. narcotics sources said about one ton of opium was discovered in plastic bags with a tight paper outer wrapping bearing a distinctive double rabbit trade mark.
The U.S. sources said it was prepared smoking opium and was probably for consumption in Southeast Asia, rather than for conversion into heroin for sale in the United States, where it could be worth more than U.S.$30 million.
"But with the six tons of opium and morphine base picked up on April 20 we think the opium trade out of Thailand may be facing serious trouble as a result of the work of the Vietnamese Navy." the sources said.
The six-ton haul, captured in a Thai fishing trawler off the central coast of South Vietnam. was believed to be the biggest seizure of illegal narcotics anywhere in the world.
Vietnam Press said an 80-ton Thai fishing boat was stopped by the Vietnamese Navy near where the latest lot of opium was found on Saturday, and the
18 crew members detained.
The U.S. sources said the
men had been brought to Saigon for investigation, but it was not known whether they had any connection with the floating opium.
The U.S. sources said it was suspected at this stage that the drugs had been dropped during a ship to ship transfer in rough sea some way off the coast.
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