Two friends sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug trafficking

On November 28, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of two defendants Nguyen Van Quynh (born 1995), residing in Nghi Kim commune, Vinh city and Tran Van Trinh (born 1989), residing in Minh Chau commune, Dien Chau district for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking".

Quynh and Trinh are friends. In early December 2023, Quynh contacted Trinh to ask if she could get drugs anywhere. Trinh replied, let Trinh contact her and let her know later.

Trinh then took a bus to the mountains to meet a man named Long (unknown background) to buy drugs. This man said he had the “goods” but asked for a deposit.

Trinh informed you of this request. Therefore, on December 13, Quynh transferred 7.2 million VND to Trinh for you to use as a deposit to buy drugs.

At noon on December 15, Quynh and Trinh rode a motorbike to Que Phong district, met Long and handed over 30 million VND to buy drugs. After receiving the money, the seller did not deliver the drugs immediately but instead asked the two to go to Quy Chau district to receive the "goods".

At the meeting point, Long pointed to a nearby electric pole to signal where the drugs were kept so Quynh could pick them up. After receiving the drugs, Quynh and Trinh returned to Vinh. On the way, the couple discussed that if anything unexpected happened, Quynh would throw the drugs away from her.

At around 2am on December 16, when the two arrived at Chau Hanh commune, Quy Chau district, they were asked by the police to undergo an administrative check. At this time, Quynh quickly threw the bag of drugs onto the roadside.

However, the actions of the two subjects were discovered by the authorities. Both were arrested with evidence of more than 138 grams of drugs.

At the trial, the two defendants admitted their crimes. Defendant Quynh said he was the one who invested in the drug trafficking, while Trinh directly went to find the source of the drugs.

The two defendants admitted to trafficking drugs for profit, even though they knew it was against the law. Of the two defendants, Quynh had been tried twice for "Theft of property" and "Illegal possession of narcotics".

At this trial, both defendants expressed remorse and asked the court to consider reducing their sentences so they could soon have the opportunity to return home and reunite with their loved ones.

Considering that in this case the two defendants committed crimes with equal roles, the People's Court sentenced Nguyen Van Quynh and Tran Van Trinh each to 20 years in prison for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking".