Vietnam court sentences 11 to death in major drug trafficking case, state media reports
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At least 20 other defendants have been sentenced to life imprisonment in the case, according to the report.
PHOTO: ST FILE
- A Vietnam court sentenced 11 people to death in a major drug trafficking case involving 227 accused, linked to drugs hidden in toothpaste tubes by flight attendants in 2023.
- Investigators revealed a transnational trafficking network smuggling drugs from France to Vietnam using encrypted messages and disguised shipments.
- Vietnam is considering abolishing the death penalty for drug trafficking, but the proposed legal changes have not yet been implemented.
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HANOI – A court in Vietnam sentenced 11 people to death in one of the country’s largest drug trafficking cases after an investigation that began when four flight attendants were caught carrying narcotics hidden in toothpaste tubes in 2023, state media reported on Sept 3.
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court handed down the death sentences to 11 defendants convicted of drug trafficking in a case that involved 227 accused people in total, online newspaper VnExpress reported.
The case stemmed from the discovery in March 2023 of more than 10kg of drugs concealed in 157 toothpaste tubes carried by four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants arriving from Paris at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat airport, VnExpress reported.
The authorities later determined the women had unknowingly transported the drugs, according to the report.
Investigators subsequently uncovered what the prosecutors have described as a transnational trafficking network that smuggled narcotics by disguising them as consumer goods from France into Vietnam.
The prosecutors said members of the network used encrypted messaging platforms, bank accounts registered under other people’s names and delivery services to distribute drugs across southern Vietnam, VnExpress reported.
Details of the lawyers representing the 11 sentenced to death were not immediately available.
At least 20 other defendants have been sentenced to life imprisonment in the case, according to the report.
The verdicts come as Vietnam considers some changes to its use of capital punishment.
In August, the government proposed abolishing the death penalty for six offences, including drug trafficking, as part of a revision to the criminal code.
However, the proposed changes have yet to take effect.
REUTERS