The People’s Court of the northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh on January 14 gave the death penalty to three members of a ring trafficking 720 cakes of heroin (a cake is equivalent to 350 grammes).

They include 38-year-old Do Anh Dung and Ha Van Quan, 31, both from Hoa Binh; and Bui Van Thuong, 30, from Son La province.

The indictment by the provincial People’s Procuracy reads that from 2007 to 2009, the three defendants and their accomplices in Hoa Binh colluded with a group in the northern port city of Hai Phong and another in Hanoi to set up a trafficking ring.

After heroin cakes were packaged in Son La’s Moc Chau district, Thuong handed over them to Dung and Quan, who later delivered them to Hanoi. From Hanoi, their accomplices transported the drugs to Hai Phong, the neighbouring province of Quang Ninh, and then China.

They transported the drugs one or two times a month with 15 cakes each. The trafficked heroin totalled 720 cakes, according to the indictment.

When two members of the ring were detained in September, 2009, Thuong, Quan and some of their accomplices fled their residence.

After Quan was arrested on February 18, 2013, the Police Department for Investigation of Drug related Crime reopened the case.-VNA