Cross-border drug trafficking (CBDT) networks tend to be fluid in nature; and their sophisticated modus operandi (MO), from preparation to the later stages of activity, enables criminal networks/syndicates to achieve their goals. Practices show similar patterns to those found in Latin America, but transnational organized crime (TOC) in the Asian region is a distinctive category. CBDT entities spanning the Vietnam– Lao PDR (hereafter Laos) border are different again from the Yakuza and Triad gangs that have traditionally characterized so-called “Asian crime”. Local criminal gangs in Vietnam are usually formed around bonds of kinship, locality, and upbringing, as well as language and ethnic identity, which not only ensures cooperation but also has a major bearing upon the organizational structure, internal relationships, and MO of CBDT entities.