Hanoi - Vietnamese police have arrested a Lao man transporting nearly half a million ecstasy pills in the central province of Thanh Hoa, a law enforcement officer said Wednesday.

Nguyen Xuan Son, head of the Thanh Hoa Department for Drug Crimes, said traffic patrolmen Tuesday stopped a Toyota with a Vietnamese licence plate exceeding the speed limit on National Highway 1.

Inspecting the car, the officers found 78 packages containing 464,000 ecstasy pills.

"This is one of the biggest cases we have found," Son said. "Each ecstasy pill sells for between 40,000 and 100,000 dong (2.25 to 5.60 dollars)."

The driver of the car, Vientiane resident Xeng Phet, 40, remains in custody.

Le Minh Loan, head of the anti-drug police force in Son La Province, said ecstasy pills weigh an average of 0.9 grams each, meaning Xeng's car contained over 400 kilograms of the drug.

Loan said Vietnam applies the death penalty for offenders in drug cases involving 10,000 or more ecstasy pills.

Vietnam's largest drug bust by weight came in May 2008, when border police arrested five Chinese men trying to cross into China with a shipping container holding nearly
8 tons of hashish. Vietnamese police said last week they had completed their investigation of that case and handed it over to the country's Supreme Prosecutor for trial.(dpa)