18 June 2003 :

Vu Xuan Lich and Tong Van Loi, leaders of a 16 member ring that smuggled heroin from Laos to Vietnam, were sentenced to death by the People's Court in Lai Chau province in Vietnam.
The pair and their accomplices were accused of trafficking 4,194 kg of heroin from 1998 to 2002 from Laos and selling it in the northern provinces of Thai Binh, Thai Nguyen, Bac Ninh and Hai Phong.
Four of their accomplices received life sentences while ten others were given prison terms from one to 20 years.