For importing 50kg of heroin into Vietnam, some of which were disguised in toothpaste tubes, police have detained 65 people.
It comes after the arrests of four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants last month who were discovered to have the tubes in carry-on luggage following a flight from Paris to Ho Chi Minh City.
Although they claimed to have been hired to transport 60 kg of toothpaste, they were actually carrying ecstasy, ketamine, and cocaine.
Even though it has some of the strictest drug regulations in the world, Vietnam is a major center for drug trafficking.
The 327 toothpaste tubes the flight attendants were carrying contained narcotics in around half of them. The women, who are currently out on bond, were reportedly oblivious of their contents, according to investigators.
Police said this week that the 65 suspects had been arrested after they uncovered another six shipments of narcotics being smuggled into Vietnam via the same route.
It is alleged they were directed by the same smuggling ring that hired the flight attendants.
The 65 suspects are being investigated for various charges, including buying, selling, transporting and storing narcotics, local media reported.
Police suspect the same syndicate often uses Vietnamese nationals studying and living in France to bring drugs into the country.
Once the drugs arrive at Vietnamese airports, domestic delivery services transport them to an accomplice in Dong Nai province bordering Saigon.
The drugs are then transported to multiple localities for distribution.
Authorities say the amount of drugs seized via air routes into the country over the past three months has surpassed the amount of airborne drugs trafficked in the past five years combined.
Ho Chi Minh City is a particularly attractive transit point for smugglers because of its proximity to neighbouring Cambodia.
Those convicted in Vietnam of possessing or smuggling more than 600g of heroin or more than 2.5kg of methamphetamine face the death penalty. Production or sale of illegal narcotics above certain quantities is also punishable by death.