Crime and law enforcement

Lao state media reported Tuesday that a woman who was arrested in Laos last week for criticizing the government on Facebook has confessed to her crime. In a Facebook Live video last week, Houayheuang Xayabouly, known by her nickname Mouay, had slammed the Lao government’s slow ...

Representatives from six countries along the Lancang-Mekong River launched a joint crackdown on cross-border human abducting and trafficking Tuesday in Kunming, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Due to low risk and high profit, human trafficking has been on the rise in recent years in the ...

Cambodia should tighten restrictions on the influx of Chinese nationals to the country, according to a local rights group, which says the community is responsible for rampant violent crime and loose ethics that are contributing to the downfall of society. Many Chinese nationals living in Cambodia ...

When Thailand arrested suspected animal trafficking kingpin Boonchai Bach last year, it was hailed by animal rights groups as a watershed day and a chance to unravel Hydra, the vast Vietnamese trafficking ring he was believed to be part of. One animal welfare group compared Mr. Boonchai’s capture ...

Myanmar is caught in a conundrum as the government attempts to clean up the country’s illegal drugs trade. The country stands alongside Afghanistan as one of the top illegal drug producers in the world. And the illegal drug cartels have kept up with the times ...

Members of the Illicit Drug Control Sector Working Group (IDSWG) visited the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge in Vientiane last week to better understand the role of Lao Customs and Immigration officials in the fight against drug trafficking. The event was attended by Deputy Head of Office of ...

Education for Nature – Vietnam’s (ENV) Wildlife Crime Unit recently enabled the rescue of the “Nghe An Three” in one of the most protracted and violent bear bile rescues to date. This positive outcome is offset by the knowledge that 10 bears were left behind despite video recordings of bile ...

The region needs a clear action plan to tackle wildlife trafficking, experts stressed this past weekend as the leaders of Asean nations meeting in Bangkok endorsed the “Chiang Mai Statement of Asean Ministers Responsible for CITES and Wildlife Enforcement”. The document’s goal is to address wildlife ...

The Ministry of Environment is looking at places to display seized elephant ivory and other illegal exotic items to highlight the “brutality” of people, despite international conservation organisation Wildlife Alliance calling for them to be destroyed. Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra told The Post that ...

Although Vietnam has some of the world’s most stringent drug laws — those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine face death – the country has also been facing the existence of a key smuggling ...