The late regret of a father who set a 'bad example' for his son to commit crimes

Sliding into sin

“Mistakes” - is the reason that defendant Lau Cha Gio (47 years old), residing in Nam Can commune, Ky Son district, gave to defend his act of illegal drug trafficking. But Gio’s reason seems difficult to accept as this is the 5th time this defendant has been brought to trial.

Previously, within nearly 20 years, Gio had been in and out of prison 4 times for different crimes. In 1996, when he was 21 years old and already a father, Gio was involved in a casetheft of property, was sentenced to 6 months in prison. After his "two-finger" habit was gone, he got involved in drugs again and was sentenced by the People's Court of Con Cuong district to 30 months in prison for illegal possession of drugs.

Now he feels regretful when his son was also arrested for drugs. Photo: Tran Vu

But it seems that the above penalty is not enough to deter this man when Gio continues to commit drug-related crimes. That was in 2010, Lau Ba Gio was sentenced by the People's Court of Dien Chau district to 30 months in prison for the crime of illegal possession of drugs. Then, in 2015, Gio was once again in trouble with the law for drugs with a sentence of 4 years and 6 months in prison.

Because of his drug addiction, it seems that the housework and taking care of the children are all left to his wife. However, even after being released from prison and the children have grown up, Gio still has no intention of "turning back". This father still has the ambition to make illegal money and get rich from drugs.

On September 13, 2021, Lau Cha Gio was at home when a man named Canh (name and address unknown) called to order drugs. Because they did not have the "goods" yet, the two sides agreed that when they had the drugs, they would make the transaction in Thanh Chuong district.

On September 16, Gio went to the house of a relative named Lau Ba Xia (54 years old) and asked him to contribute money to buy drugs to sell for profit. Xia agreed and contributed 14 million VND, while Gio contributed 1 million VND. Then, Gio took 15 million VND to a stream in the forest to buy 28 million VND worth of drugs from a person with an unknown address. Gio gave 15 million VND in advance and asked to delay the debt for the remaining amount.

In the early morning of September 18, Xia and Gio hid drugs in their motorbike and then went to Thanh Chuong district to hand them over to Canh. However, the business transaction of these two uncles and nephews was stopped by Nghe An authorities. The evidence of the case was 4 packages of various drugs with a total weight of more than 90 grams.

Regret being a "bad example" for the children

The trial of the two defendants Lau Cha Gio and Lau Ba Xia proceeded quite quickly as both admitted to their crimes. Gio stated that because he was greedy, he agreed when a customer called to order drugs. Because he did not have enough money to buy drugs, he went to ask defendant Xia to “share capital”.

The two defendants Gio and Xia shared 36 years in prison for drugs. Photo: Tran Vu

The accomplice in the case, defendant Xia, said that when his nephew invited him to contribute money to drug trafficking out of greed, he agreed. “I used 14 million VND from the house construction to contribute capital with Gio to buy drugs,” Xia told the court. This defendant admitted that he had been sentenced to 14 years and 22 months in prison twice for drug-related crimes. Although he had only been released from prison for more than a year, he still reoffended.

During the deliberation, when asked about this crime, the defendant immediately said it was a “mistake”. Then the defendant told his story: At that time, the COVID-19 epidemic was complicated, and his wife unfortunately broke her leg. Because he didn’t have money to take his wife to the hospital, he… took a risk.

And after the father's recklessness, one of Gio's children was also arrested for involvement in another drug case. Gio said he was shocked to hear that his son, born in 1996, had also committed a crime. This man regretted and accepted responsibility for not teaching his son well. "He must have been addicted to drugs. During the detention, the father and son had the opportunity to meet each other. I could only encourage him to try harder," Gio sadly said about his son being arrested not long after him.

When asked what he thought about both father and son being caught trafficking drugs, Gio answered: “I regret it very much” and then lowered his head. That was also the only time when tears welled up in the defendant’s eyes, although throughout the trial, Gio was quite calm.

Then this defendant said that now the biggest comfort for the couple is their child who is working abroad in Laos. “He is currently working as an interpreter there. Knowing that he has a decent job like that makes me feel secure. I hope he doesn’t fall into the same trap as his father and brother,” Gio said.

For the crime of illegal drug trafficking, the two defendants Lau Cha Gio and Lau Ba Xia were each sentenced to 18 years in prison. Entering the prison gate for the fifth time when his children were all in different places, one in prison, one wandering, Gio could only send a message and apologize to his wife and children, belatedly...