05 January 2004 :

Three men were sentenced to death by a Vietnamese court for trafficking heroin from Laos. Le Thanh Hien, Lam Viet Son and Nguyen Phan Binh were arrested in May 2001 in Tien Giang province near the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City. At the end of a four-day trial they were found guilty by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court of smuggling 14 kg of heroin into the country from neighbouring Laos between 1998 and 1999 and selling it to dealers.