Eight get death for dealing 190kg of heroin in Vietnam

Among those receiving the capital penalty was the ring’s leader Vu Ngoc Son, 37, hailing from the northern province of Bac Giang, the People’s Court of the northern province of Hoa Binh said after 13 days of trial.

The other seven traffickers given the same sentence included five men – Duong Ngo Thang, Hoang Van Diep, Nguyen Xuan Hoa, Hoang Trong Quan, and Lieu Van Ly – and two women, Nguyen Thi Thinh and Hoang Thi Tuyet Lan.

The court also sentenced five other ring members to life imprisonment and gave sentences ranging from two to 20 years in jail to the remaining 22 convicts.

Duong Thi Khang, 47, received two sentences totaling 30 years in jail on charges of trafficking in drugs and brokering bribery.

These 35 traffickers were convicted on different charges including illegitimately dealing in drugs, giving bribes, brokering bribery, illicitly using weapons, resisting law enforcers, and murder.

According to the indictment, on the evening of June 15, 2011, a police team of Hoa Binh Province and their colleagues from the Ministry of Public Security signaled to a suspicious car traveling in Phong Phu Commune to stop for an examination, but the driver sped up to get away.

Police officers used a car to run after the suspected vehicle. When the chase reached Ngoc My Commune, the man who drove the runaway car used a gun to shoot at the police while ramming his car into their vehicle.

That driver then left his car and ran into a forest nearby after continuing to open fire on the police team, injuring an officer.

The team hunted for the man and seized him at 8:00 am the next morning. He then identified himself as Vu Ngoc Son.

On searching Son’s car, police officers confiscated eight bricks of heroin.

From Son’s testimony, police went on to arrest his accomplices. After investigations, police officers concluded that the ring had illegally transported and traded in 541 bricks of heroin that weighed about 190kg.

At yesterday’s hearing, all the 35 defendants admitted to their offenses as stated in the indictment.

The court confiscated from the convicts billions of dong (VND1 billion equals US$46,800), four cars, for guns, and 27 mobile phones.