Vietnam convicts 9 in 'VIP drug club'
HANOI - A court in Vietnam has handed down harsh prison sentences to members
of a 'VIP drug club' that dealt in heroin and ecstasy, state media
reported Saturday.
"Club" leader Nguyen Khanh Tan got a sentence of 24 years, and
several others had jail terms of more than 20 years. The group was
dubbed the VIP club by local media because its members are sons and
daughters of prominent Communist Party officials - including the son
of a former chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee and the son of
a former deputy minister of public security.
Prosecutors told the court that the nine met at Tan's house to take
heroin, and eventually started dealing drugs to support their
habits.
The defendants told the court that they sold more than 373 grams of
heroin and 425 ecstasy pills between July 2000 and May 2001, when
they were arrested. Prosecutors said the real figure was likely much
higher.
The case highlights the extent to which Vietnam's growing drug
problem has touched the upper levels of society. Earlier this year,
police busted a major trafficking ring run by members of the
Communist Party, including a village People's Committee chief.
Despite a concentrated effort to combat the "social evil" of drug
abuse, the official count of addicts climbed 10 per cent in the last
year to an estimated 130,000, with 70 percent of them under age 30.
Heroin use has risen sharply, with state media estimating that more
than 800 people died in 2001 from the effects of drug abuse.
Vietnam toughened its penalties for drug-related offences in 1997,
with a mandatory death penalty for anyone trafficking more than 1
kilogramme of heroin.
In 2001, Vietnamese courts sentenced at least 55 people to death for
trafficking drugs, down from 85 in 2000.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - November 2, 2002
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