Vietnam sentences four to death for drug smuggling
HANOI - A Vietnam court has sentenced four members of an international drug trafficking ring to death by firing squad and four others, including an American citizen, to life behind bars, a court official said on Friday. The gang was charged with trafficking 113 packs of heroin, 110 LB of marijuana and 6,000 ecstasy pills between Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan and the Netherlands from 1993 to 2002. The amount of heroin in the case was equivalent to 87 lb, far exceeding the 1.32 lb that invokes capital punishment in the communist country.
John Nguyen, or Nguyen Nhu Hung, was one of the four who received a sentence of life in jail on Thursday after the four-day trial. The U.S. consulate general confirmed Nguyen is an American passport holder but did not have any further details on him.
Nguyen had already been sentenced to 20 years in jail in May 2002 by the same city court for a separate drugs offence.
One of the others who received a term of life in jail was ex-policeman Ngo Duc Minh. Prosecutors had urged the death sentence, but state media said he received clemency because he made a "sincere confession" and aided in the investigation.
Two of the 11 defendants were given 20-year jail terms and another a nine-year term, the official at the Ho Chi Minh City People's court said.
The gang bought heroin in from the Golden Triangle and Cambodia, then shipped out the drugs to Japan by sea and air. They also bought ecstasy pills from the Netherlands to sell in Vietnam, the court was told.
Reuters - February 26, 2004.
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