26 July 2004 :
Three drug traffickers were sentenced to death in Vietnam, while 19 other members of the same gang were handed jail terms ranging from four years to life imprisonment.Nguyen Xuan Thanh and two female accomplices, Mai Thi Luong and Pham Bich Hoa, were convicted by the People's Court of the northeastern port city of Haiphong of trafficking nearly 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of heroin.
The head of the network, Hoang Thi Mai Phuong, was not handed the death penalty because she was nursing a baby. She was one of seven people who were sentenced to life behind bars at the end of a 10-day trial.
The ring, which sold and trafficked heroin across northern Vietnam, was broken up in 2002.
(Sources: Agence France Presse, 27/07/2004)