Crime and law enforcement

To say the global novel coronavirus pandemic is causing chaos and affecting lives in real and tangible ways is certainly no understatement. But one impact that has not received significant attention is how its spread is hurting the efforts of governments to combat transnational organized crime ...

Last week, China conducted another iteration of its joint patrols with three riparian countries in the Mekong River. The development spotlighted one aspect of Beijing’s continued effort to advance collaboration in the Mekong subregion and Southeast Asia more generally. As I have noted before, as China ...

A patrol from the Mekong Riverine Unit seized about 1,000 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana found in fertiliser sacks on the bank of the Mekong river in Bung Khong Long district of Bang Kan province late on Tuesday night, MRU commander R/Adm Sompong Sorn-akas said on ...

Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, has asked the country’s agriculture ministry to draft a directive to stop illegal trading and consumption of wildlife over fears it spreads disease. The directive, seen as a victory for animal rights organisations, will lead to a clamping down on ...

Local officials seized about 196 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana from the Mekong river bank in Wan Yai district on Tuesday morning. Residents in tambon Pong Kham reported to the kamnan and Wan Yai district chief Pitinat Nithisthani after seeing seven black plastic bags on the bank ...

Hundreds of corporations in Vietnam improved their cyber security and legal compliance by replacing illegal software with fully licensed programmes since the launch of BSA’s ASEAN software legalisation campaign last September. The Software Alliance reports that over the last six months, more than 300 corporations in Viet ...

Vietnam and the U.S. have announced that cooperation on cross-border crime has led to a U.S. grand jury indictment of an American teacher accused of traveling to the Southeast Asian nation to have sex with minors. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California ...

The Vientiane People’s Court has sentenced a former director of Lao Logistics State Enterprise to life imprisonment on charges of corruption. Director of the Lao Logistics State Enterprise, (LLSE), Mr. Khampheng, was found guilty of abusing his position in the form of embezzlement and bribery, according to ...

Rangers made a large seizure of methamphetamine pills and arrested three men in Tha Uthen district of this northeastern border province on Sunday night. The drugs were found by a unit from the 21st Ranger Task Force patrolling the Mekong river bank in Tha Uthen district, ...

More than 32 million methamphetamine pills have been seized thanks to a two-month-long coordinated anti-drug campaign by countries in the Mekong Delta, says the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). The joint campaign was implemented in Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia since December, and ...