VIETNAM: DEATH PENALTY HANDED TO TWO HEROIN TRANSPORTERS
January 16, 2019: The Hanoi People’s Court pronounced the death penalty for two defendants charged with the illegal transportation of drugs at the first instance trial on 10 January 2019. They are Vi Trung Hien (born in 1988, from the northern province of Lang Son) and Luong Thi Huan (born in 2000, from the northwestern province of Dien Bien). Huan was also given one-year imprisonment for the illegal possession of drugs. According to the indictment, in February 2018, Hien knew a man named Thang who lives near the Vietnam-Laos border area. A few months later, Thang agreed with Hien to transport drugs with the payment of 15 million VND (646.9 USD) per brick. On June 5, 2018, Hien received a call from Thang asking to meet at a hotel in Dien Bien city in the evening to receive 10 bricks of heroin (each brick equals to around 350g), then transport them to a petrol station in Cao Loc district, Lang Son province. Hien later hired Huan to transport the drugs to Lang Son, paying 10 million VND per brick. On June 7 morning, upon her arrival at My Dinh bus station in Hanoi where she was waiting for a taxi to Lang Son, Huan was busted by the police. Hien later gave himself over to the police for confession. Apart from trafficking 10 bricks of heroin, Huan also stored a small amount of synthetic drugs. She confessed that she had transported drugs for Hien multiple times. (Sources: vietnamplus.vn, 10/01/2019)
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