The road to justice

(Baonghean) -These young men (mostly from Vinh City) were caught by the authorities while they were “flying” to the wild music at the Viet-Lao Hotel. Among the group of young men was a beauty queen from a district of Ha Tinh Province. Because she was gullible, she ended up in trouble with the law, because she was a “wooden leg” distributing crystal meth to addicts.

On the night of November 9, 2011, Nguyen Ngoc Tuan (in Vinh City) brought 63 synthetic drug pills (ecstasy) and 1 laptop and Ho Tien Dung (in Hung Nguyen) brought 11 ecstasy pills, 1 package of crystal meth, 1 glass tube (tool for using crystal meth), 1 laptop to the karaoke bar - Viet - Lao Hotel, in Xuan An (Nghi Xuan, Ha Tinh) to use drugs and "fly" to the wild music.

At karaoke room number 1 (directly managed by Le Minh Duc), Tuan took 12 ecstasy pills and gave them to his lover Dang Thi Thang, the beauty queen of Duc Tho district, to distribute to users. After that, Thang took Tuan's drugs and gave each of the "pendulums" such as Nguyen Van Huong, Thach Thi Thuy, Ho Thi Thao Nguyen, Nguyen Thi Thanh Thao (hotel staff) 1 pill. Of which, Thao, Thuy, Nguyen used them by drinking them with Coca-Cola, the remaining ecstasy pills (8 pills) were hidden by Thang... Meanwhile, Ho Tien Dung went into karaoke room number 3, mixed crystal meth, then took out 3 ecstasy pills, Dung and Nguyen Van Quyen each used 1 pill. Dung gave the remaining 1 pill to 2 other people to share. After that, Dung turned on the music, and the group continued to use crystal meth and party to the sound of dance music.

The defendants stand in court

The behavior of the group using crystal meth was discovered by the people and reported to the police. Through monitoring, the detectives learned that the number of young people present at the karaoke rooms of the Viet - Lao Hotel were using synthetic drugs, including 4 people that the detectives were particularly interested in: Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, Ho Tien Dung (in Nghe An), Dang Thi Thang (in Duc Tho, Ha Tinh) and Le Minh Duc (a manager of the karaoke bar at the Viet - Lao Hotel). Thang was tasked with being a "wooden leg" to bring synthetic drugs into the karaoke rooms for the subjects under Tuan's direction. After collecting sufficient evidence, at around 1:00 a.m. on November 9, 2011, Nghi Xuan District Police coordinated with Xuan An Town Police to search karaoke rooms 1 and 3 at the Viet - Lao Hotel and arrested many men and women, aged 18 to 27, while they were illegally using crystal meth and dancing to the music.

Here, the police seized 48 pills of drugs from Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, 8 pills of drugs from Dang Thi Thang, 8 pills of drugs from Ho Tien Dung and 1 package of drugs Methaphenamine, weighing 0.755 grams. The total amount of drugs (MDMA type) that the authorities seized was 64 pills and 2 plastic bags containing white powder (crystal meth), 11 motorbikes, many mobile phones, along with tools for crushing drugs and cash. During the investigation and collection of evidence, the investigation agency of Nghi Xuan District Police had sufficient grounds to affirm and request the Nghi Xuan District People's Procuracy to prosecute the defendants Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, Dang Thi Thang, and Ho Tien Dung for the act of storing and organizing the illegal use of drugs; Le Minh Duc, the former karaoke manager, was prosecuted for the crime of harboring the illegal use of drugs. The remaining subjects (many of whom are employees and receptionists of the Vietnam - Laos hotel) all participated in using crystal meth, but considering that the violations of the above subjects were not serious enough to be prosecuted before the law, the investigation agency prepared a file for administrative handling.

At the first instance trial on July 29, 2012, the defendants Tuan, Thang, Duc and Dung all confessed their crimes: Tuan himself was addicted to synthetic drugs. On the night of September 11, at karaoke room number 1, Tuan used 2 ecstasy pills. Ho Tien Dung stated that on the night of November 9, Dung met Le Tuan Anh, Nguyen Van Quyen and Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet in the Thong bridge area, Vinh city, then everyone invited each other to the Viet - Lao hotel to use crystal meth. After that, Dung bought 1 package of crystal meth and 11 ecstasy pills from a young man of unknown origin and took them to the Viet - Lao hotel to use. Defendant Le Minh Duc stated that he was the manager of the karaoke rooms, but because of his drug addiction, Duc joined everyone in using drugs to enjoy the wild atmosphere in the karaoke room to "relieve boredom". Duc also admitted that he provided lighters and gas cylinders to karaoke room number 3 for Ho Tien Dung.

As for Dang Thi Thang, those present at the trial felt regret and pity for the fate of this 21-year-old beauty queen. Just because of a wrong step, a gullibility, Thang was dragged into a sinful legal circle by Tuan and could not get out, even though she knew that she was just a "wooden leg" for Tuan, but that was also an act of violating the law. Now, Tham is truly heartbroken and remorseful when realizing her mistake, but it is all too late.

After deliberation, the presiding judge sentenced the defendants: Nguyen Ngoc Tuan to 6.5 years in prison; Le Minh Duc to 5 years in prison, Dang Thi Thang to 5 years in prison and Ho Tien Dung to 2 years and 6 months in prison for the crimes of illegally storing narcotics, organizing illegal use of narcotics and harboring illegal use of narcotics.

The trial ended with belated remorse from the defendants.

Huu Trong