At 8:00 pm on June 1, the two sides coordinated to arrest two drug traffickers and seize 30 cakes of heroin, 160,000 synthetic pills, and 37 million KIP (US$4,500).

Later on June 2, the forces caught two other smugglers in Dien Bien, seizing two cakes of heroin and 2,000 synthetic pills.

The arrestees confessed to having bought the drugs in the shared border area.

In 2015, Vietnamese and Lao border provinces signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in preventing and combating cross-border drug crimes.