31 March 2004 :

Four people, including a married couple, were sentenced to death in Vietnam after being convicted of smuggling drugs into the country from Laos. The quartet were among 19 people accused of trafficking over 22.7 kilograms of heroin from the central province of Nghe An, which borders Laos, to the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City. The ruling Communist Party's Nhan Dan newspaper named the four as Nguyen Phuc Cuong, Lam Quang Hai, Chu Duc Hai and his wife Nguyen Thi Nga. Eight members of the gang were jailed for life by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, while seven others were handed prison sentences ranging from four to 18 years at the end of the seven-day trial.