VIETNAMESE GROUP CRACKS HEROIN 'CODE OF SILENCE'

THE Vietnamese community had led a successful suburban battle in forcing
major heroin syndicates from their traditional base in Brisbane's west, a
community leader claimed yesterday.

John Vu, a settlement officer working for the Department of Immigration and
welfare officer for the Vietnamese Community of Australia, said he was
"proud" to announce Darn and Inala were no longer Queensland's heroin
capitals.

He attributed the successful campaign to the establishment of Vietnamese
liaison officers who dissolved the community's "code of silence" and acted
as go-betweens for the Vietnamese community and police.

"We believe if we are not able to stop crime than sooner or later the whole
community suffers from a bad image," he said.

Mr Vu's comments follow major seizures of high-grade heroin in the last
month as a result of police raids on two Vietnamese groups based in
Brisbane.

In one raid police say they smashed a major Vietnamese crime syndicate and
seized almost $1 million worth of uncut heroin front addresses in Runcorn
and Indooroopilly.

On the same day, violence broke out on the streets of Indooroopilly with a
group of eight men attacking and slashing each other with machetes, butcher
knives and swords.

Two people have been arrested on charges relating to the incident. One of
the men, who had surgery on bone-deep cuts to his arm, refused to file a
complaint with police.

"When it happened, we made no excuse, but we just want to make it clear that
the effort of the Vietnamese community as a whole is to try and minimise
these things from happening again," Mr Vu said yesterday.

He said the crime situation began in Darra during the second year of the
recession in the late 1980s.

Mr Vu said with high unemployment in the community, crime was a lucrative
attraction to those families already struggling with the language barrier.

He said the heroin supplied to Queensland from the infamous Sydney suburb of
Cabramatta did not stem from gang connections.

"The Cabramatta link is family and so gang connections should be corrected
to family connections and that's why we have three generations of one family
involved in the drug raid this week," Mr Vu said.

A combination of suburban environment and an insular Vietnamese community
provided a cultural isolation which allowed drug syndicates to flourish in
Brisbane outer-western areas.

But, in 1995 the community had enough and formed a working group to break
down the barriers that stood between them and the law, Mr Vu said.

One of their first moves was to campaign for a Vietnamese-speaking liaison
officer and encourage people to speak out.

"Language is always a barrier so in many cases they like to talk to us first
and then we contact the police and the police take it from there," Mr Vu
said.

"We predicted the development of crimes in the area and then we assisted the
police with that information."

Mr Vu said he and the community raised the issue of youths being recruited
by drug syndicates with police last year.

The community were aware that unscrupulous dealers used "lenient" juvenile
laws and a lack of criminal history with police to approach high school
students and youths to sell drugs.

"We warned the Vietnamese parents that if they don't give their kids money
and then they all of a sudden have luxury items like a new mobile phone,
then you have to start to worry, you have to start to care," Mr Vu said.

It was clear the community would no longer tolerate crime in their
community.

"For instance, Sydney thinks that we (Brisbane) are in their backyard and
they come here to avoid being arrested."

Mr Vu said their efforts had succeeded in pushing drugs out of Darra, Inala,
Carob Park and were now concentrating on Goodna.

Checked-by: Don Beck