Woman sentenced for selling methamphetamine to drug addicts.
Taking advantage of her familiarity with the mountainous terrain, Lo Thi Van trafficked methamphetamine to resell to drug addicts. She was arrested by the police as soon as she stepped off the bus.
On August 5th, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a criminal trial to hear the case against defendant Lo Thi Van (born in 1986), residing in Giang Son Tay commune, Do Luong district, for the crime of..."Illegal trafficking of narcotics".
Lô Thị Vân was born and raised in Châu Kim commune, Quế Phong district, and married into a family in Giang Sơn Tây commune. Taking advantage of her familiarity with the area, Vân connected with several individuals from the border region to traffic drugs for resale and profit.
On the morning of April 16, 2024, Van took a bus to the intersection near Kim Son town market in Que Phong district. She then took a motorbike taxi to the Nam Giai intersection in Chau Kim commune and continued on foot for about 2 km until she met a Hmong man sitting by the roadside. Van approached him and offered to buy 10 packets of methamphetamine for 21 million dong.
The man went into the forest, and about 15 minutes later he returned to deliver the drugs to Van. After receiving the "goods," Van put them in her handbag and took a taxi back home.
At approximately 4 PM on the same day, as Van stepped out of the passenger bus, she was discovered and apprehended by a task force from the Narcotics Crime Investigation Department of the Nghe An Provincial Police, who seized 2,000 pills of narcotics weighing over 207 grams.
At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime. She stated that she needed money for personal expenses, so she trafficked drugs to resell to addicts in the area. Lo Thi Van stated that she intended to sell each methamphetamine tablet individually for 60 to 80 thousand dong.
The female defendant presented her difficult circumstances, stating that she was divorced and had two young children, in order to ask the court to consider mitigating her sentence.
The panel of judges determined that the defendant's actions were dangerous to society. However, several mitigating circumstances, such as honest confession and remorse, should also be considered. Therefore, the court sentenced Lo Thi Van to 20 years in prison.
