Sentenced to death for carrying a gun to sell drugs

(Baonghean.vn) - With two charges of 'illegal drug trafficking' and 'illegal possession of military weapons', Tho Ba Nai must face the highest sentence of death.

On the morning of December 27, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Tho Ba Nai (born in 1990, H'Mong ethnic group, residing in Tri Le commune, Que Phong district) on the above two charges.

Defendant Tho Ba Nai in court. Photo: Phuong Thao

According to the indictment, around mid-2016, Tho Ba Nai went to Sam To district, Sam Neua province, Laos to meet a man named Ly Ba Tho (residing in Sam To district). Tho said, "I have a source of drugs from Laos. If anyone wants to buy, please contact me to bring the goods to sell for profit." Nai agreed. At the end of 2016, Nai went to mine ore in Quy Hop, met a man from there, and immediately exchanged the above information.

At around 8pm on July 5, 2017, a man in Quy Hop district called Nai and said he needed to buy 10 heroin cakes, each cake costing 140 million VND. Nai immediately called Tho. Tho said he would deliver them that evening, and if he sold them, he would pay Nai 15 million VND.

Around 24 hours later that day, Tho came to Nai's house carrying a black bag containing drugs inside and slept at Nai's house to make the delivery together.

At around 12 o'clock the next day, Nai drove a motorbike carrying Tho. When they were about 500m from Nam Nhóong bridge, Nai saw a black car parked near the bridge. Tho gave Nai a bag containing drugs, and also gave her a pistol, saying "to protect the goods". Nai held the gun in her pocket and walked about 25m closer to the car before being approached and arrested by a working group from the Investigation Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police.

Seeing that, the man who bought the goods immediately ran away.

Through verification, all the white powder in the bag was drugs, the gun Nai kept on her person was a military gun, type K59 produced by the (former) Soviet Union in 1980.

At court, Tho Ba Nai confessed to all his crimes. The panel sentenced him to death for "illegal drug trafficking" and one year in prison for "illegal possession of military weapons". The total sentence was death.

Phuong Thao