Drug debt, 'profit' of life imprisonment
(Baonghean.vn) - While going to the Vietnam - Laos border area to cut grass for cows, Cu Ba Chua was invited by a Mong person to use and sell drugs. Chua agreed and then bought hundreds of millions of dong in debt for drugs and "earned" a life sentence.
Nghe An Provincial People's Court has just opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Cu Ba Chua (born 1986), residing in Tien Tieu village, Nam Can commune, Ky Son district, for the crimes of "Illegal trading of narcotics" and "Illegal possession of military weapons”Defendant Lau Ba Cu (born in 1996), residing in Nam Can commune, was prosecuted for the crime of "Illegal possession of narcotics".
If Chua was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "Illegal transportation of drugs", Cu was also imprisoned for "Theft of property".
According to the indictment, in early August 2021, Cu Ba Chua went to cut grass for cows in the Vietnam - Laos border area when he met a Mong (Laos) ethnic man who introduced himself as Tu. Invited by Tu to use and sell drugs, Chua immediately took some heroin and synthetic drugs to try.
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| Two defendants at trial. Photo: Tran Vu |
About 10 days later, Chua received a phone call from Tu asking him to go to the forest to get drugs. Chua said he didn't have any money yet, but Chu said, "Buy as much as you have."
A few days later, Chua went to the border area between Vietnam and Laos to trade drugs. Chua bought many packages of drugs from Tu with a total weight of more than 1.1 kg, for 130 million VND, paid 30 million VND in advance, and deferred the remaining amount.
During the drug trade, Tu gave Chua an AK gun and many bullets. Chua paid 2 million Lao kip and then took the gun and bullets home to hide and resell for profit.
At noon that same day, Lau Ba Cu was visited by two men he did not know to buy drugs. Cu took 1.8 million VND from the customer and then went to the pagoda to buy a package of synthetic drugs. When Cu was about to go home, he was caught red-handed by the police.
At the trial, both defendants admitted to their crimes. Chua admitted to buying drugs on credit to resell for profit. This defendant also admitted to illegally storing military weapons.
Prosecuted for "Illegal possession of drugs", defendant Cu confessed and asked the court to consider reducing his sentence.
After considering the case in its entirety, the panel sentenced Cu Ba Chua to life in prison for "Illegal drug trafficking" and 6 years in prison for "Illegal possession of military weapons"; the total sentence was life in prison. The court also sentenced defendant Lau Ba Cu to 7 years in prison for "Illegal possession of drugs".
