Four Vietnamese policemen have been detained for receiving bribes from local drug retailers in the country's Hanoi capital to abet their activities, local newspaper People reported Friday.

The policemen, including two from the Drug Crimes Investigation Bureau under the Hanoi Police and two from the police force of the city's Hoang Mai district, were arrested on Thursday for the charge of sheltering a drug-selling point and disclosing information about drug investigation process to the drug sellers. The point in Ha Ba Trung district served over 1,000 addicts a day.

Late last year, seven other local policemen were detained in a similar case. Each of them received 300,000-500,000 Vietnamese dong (VND) (18.9-31.4 U.S. dollars) from some drug dealers in Hai Ba Trung district each day to abet their activities.

The number of drug addicts in Vietnam surged 56.8 percent to 158,428 in 2005 from 101,036 in 2000, according to a recent national conference on the issue.

Vietnam, which has targeted to become a drug-free country by 2015, annually spends estimated 320 billion VND (20.1 million dollars) on detoxification activities.

Source: Xinhua