The journey of a man who was convicted of multiple crimes but still trafficked heroin

"Carrying" many criminal records but still involved in crime

Nghe An Provincial People's Court has just opened a trial for defendant Nguyen Van Kien (born 1975), hometown Nghi Hoa commune, Nghi Loc district, for the crime of illegal drug trafficking.

Kien is the second child in a family of 9 siblings. Dropping out of school early, Kien wandered everywhere to work for a living. During his time living in Dak Lak, the young man committed a crime.Theft of property" and was sentenced to 12 months in prison in 1993.

After being released from prison, Kien returned to his hometown to start his life over. But then, this young man continued to have bad habits. In 1997, Kien was sentenced by the People's Court of Nghe An province to 12 years in prison for "Theft of property". After serving his prison sentence, Kien was pardoned in early 2005.

Two times of "eating prison food and wearing a numbered uniform" still did not make him give up. After leaving his hometown to go to Can Tho to do business and make a living, Kien's hands were once again stained. This time, Kien committed the crime of "Buying and selling drugs" and was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the court.

It was thought that the years in prison would help Kien realize his mistakes, correct them, and rebuild his life before it was too late. However, he used the relationships he had while in prison to commit other crimes after his release.

According to the case file, while in prison in 1997, Kien met Nguyen Dinh Minh. 20 years later, when both were released from prison and met in real life, Kien immediately asked Minh to buy a heroin cake. One day in early July 2017, Kien gave Minh 160 million VND to buy drugs, and also gave Minh 5 million VND as a commission.

Through friends, Minh asked someone to buy a cake of heroin. When he arrived at Hung Tay commune, Hung Nguyen district, Minh suspected that the police were chasing him, so he hid the drugs in a cemetery.

As for Kien, after a week of waiting but not hearing from Minh, Kien got impatient and called to ask. At this time, Minh said that he had bought the drugs but on the way home, he was chased by the police and lost the heroin cake, now he had no "goods" to send.

Kien did not believe that reason, so on July 17, 2017, he returned from Da Nang to Nghe An to meet Minh. Faced with Minh's firm assertion that he had thrown away the heroin, Kien thought that his former cellmate only wanted to take his drugs, so he asked for his money back. At this time, Minh promised to pay Kien back in 10 days.

As for Minh, on August 4, 2017, he went to the Hung Tay cemetery to get 1 heroin cake (more than 357 grams) that he had hidden before and brought it home. The next day, when Minh was selling the drugs to another customer, he was arrested by the police. For the crime of illegal drug trafficking, Minh was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2018.

Fugitive and not guilty

As for Nguyen Van Kien, when Minh was arrested, he was in Bac Giang. After reading the news that Minh was arrested with the evidence, Kien quickly returned to Da Nang and then fled to Ho Chi Minh City. By the end of 2017, when his family informed him that he was wanted for drug crimes, Kien threw away all his personal documents, fled, and changed his residence many times.

During his time on the run, Kien lived under the identity of another person. He also had little contact with his family in his hometown. After a while, when he saw that the information about the case he was involved in seemed to be quiet, Kien became less vigilant. He lived as husband and wife with a young woman in Duc Lap Thuong commune, Duc Hoa district (Long An province).

Because of his status as a fugitive, Kien did not dare to give his wife a title through a marriage certificate or wedding, but just lived together like that even though they had two children together.

However, the case file related to Kien is still being monitored by the authorities. After a period of being wanted, on February 2, 2023, Nguyen Van Kien was arrested while hiding in Duc Hoa district, Long An province.

During the investigation, Kien did not admit to the crime. At first, Kien said he lent Minh 160 million VND to buy a wooden house. On the appointed day, Minh did not pay, so Kien went to collect the money. At this time, Minh said he had used the borrowed money to buy 1 cake of heroin. Kien said he only committed the crime of Failure to report a crime.

Later, Kien changed his statement, saying that after being released from prison, because he had no job, he went to Da Nang to live, did business with friends, and spontaneously set up a group to manage the order at the bus station. At the end of May 2017, Kien borrowed money from many people to collect enough 165 million to give to Minh to buy drugs with the purpose of bringing them to Da Nang to use with friends. However, the investigation agency determined that Kien's statement that he bought drugs to use with friends was unfounded because the money to buy drugs had to be borrowed from many people. Therefore, there is enough basis to conclude that Kien bought drugs with the purpose of reselling for profit.

At the trial, defendant Kien also did not admit to the illegal drug trafficking. However, this defendant asked the court to consider reducing the sentence because he was sick and his child was also sick.

The panel of judges determined that although the defendant did not admit guilt during the investigation and at trial, based on the case file and the testimony of the relevant subjects, there was sufficient evidence to confirm that the prosecution of the defendant for the crime of Illegal drug trafficking was in accordance with the law. Considering that in this case the defendant had the aggravating circumstance of recidivism, the panel of judges sentenced Nguyen Van Kien to 14 years in prison.