Two 'female monsters' sentenced to life in prison for white goods

On January 13, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendants Dau Thi Lan (born in 1960, residing in Cua Nam ward, Vinh city), Quang Thi Xuyet (born in 1972, residing in Cho hamlet, Tri Le commune, Que Phong district) for the crime of "Illegal trading of narcotics" and Nguyen Van Trung (born in 1974, residing in Nghi Trung commune, Nghi Loc district) for the crime of "Illegal possession of narcotics".

Previously, at around 10:30 a.m. on August 23, 2019, in the area of ​​Nguyen Trai Street (Vinh City), Vinh City police discovered and caught Nguyen Van Trung red-handed in the act of storing drugs. The working group took Trung to the investigation agency to make a record and seized 1 package of drugs. During the investigation, Trung confessed that he bought the above amount of crystal meth from Dau Thi Lan.

Three defendants at trial. Photo: Tran Vu

Vinh City Police issued an emergency detention order for Lan, and discovered a package of drugs in her pants pocket. A search of Lan's house found two packages of drugs in the package. Dau Thi Lan confessed to buying it from Quang Thi Xuyet.

At the investigation agency, the subjects confessed to the crime as follows: around mid-2019, Xuyet went to the market in Tri Le commune and met a H'Mong woman who asked her to sell 2 cakes of crystal meth for 300 million VND, promising to give her 20 million VND after finishing the job. Xuyet agreed.

After that, Xuyet contacted Lan to ask her to find a buyer for the drugs. Xuyet told Lan: if she sold the drugs for 300 million VND, she would get 4 million VND, and if she sold them for more, Lan would get the difference.

Early morning of August 23, 2019, Xuyet brought a snake bag containing 2 bricks of drugs to Lan's house. Xuyet took the "goods" to the place where Lan sold breakfast, then sat down to relax. At around 8am, a young man named Vinh came to ask Lan to sell him a package of drugs (weighing 1.31 grams) for 800,000 VND. Lan agreed. Not long after, Trung came to buy 400,000 VND worth of drugs. When Trung arrived at the Quan Banh intersection, he was arrested.

At noon that same day, after selling breakfast, Lan took the package containing drugs into the house. At 1:30 p.m., the Vinh City Police Department executed an emergency detention order against Dau Thi Lan.

The investigation agency determined that this was a case of complicity, Dau Thi Lan must bear criminal responsibility for the act of buying and selling 2,000.31 grams of drugs, Quang Thi Xuyet must bear criminal responsibility for the act of buying and selling 1,999 grams, Trung must bear criminal responsibility for the act of storing 0.625 grams of drugs.

At the trial, the defendants all admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment. The defendants all cited difficult circumstances to request a reduced sentence.

For the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking", the two defendants Dau Thi Lan and Quang Thi Xuyet were sentenced to life in prison, while Nguyen Van Trung was sentenced to 12 months in prison for "Illegal possession of drugs".