Hoa Binh (VNA) – The People’s Court ofnorthern mountainous Hoa Binh province has sentenced nine out of 23 drugsmugglers to death on charges of “illegally trafficking drugs, illegally possessingmilitary weapons and not denouncing crimes”.
At the first instance trial that took place fromFebruary 27 to March 21, the 23 defendants were found guilty of trafficking1,415 heroin cakes from 2012 to 2015.
Nine of the defendants, namely Tran Duc Duy, Nguyen Trung Kien, NguyenVan Hung, Nguyen Thanh Nam, Luong Xuan Vung, Chu Van Hau, Pham Van Manh, LyTien Dong and Trieu Van Duy were sentenced to death, nine others were givenlife sentences and four received 17-20 years in prison. A woman got 18 months behindbars for failure to denounce the crimes.
Defendants Tran Duc Duy and Nguyen Van Hung were alsoimposed two-year and three-year imprisonments, respectively, for illegalpossession of military weapons.
The defendants were accused of making illicit profitsworth more than 13 billion VND and 708,000 Chinese yuan.-VNA
