Sentenced to death for 5 million VND in drug trafficking fees
(Baonghean.vn) - Tho No Bi agreed to receive more than 5 million VND to find and deliver drugs to customers. But before receiving his payment, Bi was arrested with more than 100kg of drugs and sentenced to death.
On the morning of May 31, the Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Tho No Bi (born 1982), residing in Sam To district, Hua Phan province (Laos) for the crime of illegal drug trafficking.
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| Defendant Tho No Bi in court. Photo: Tran Vu |
According to the indictment, in November 2018, Tho No Bi went to the center of Sam To district to meet a man named Lu Va. Through conversation, this man asked Bi to find Vietnamese customers to buy drugs to sell. Bi accepted and promised to contact him when he had a connection.
Around December 2018, over the phone, Bi received an order from a Vietnamese man named Lai (with a Northern accent) to buy 6 kg of crystal meth and 8 packages of pink phien, each containing 30 small packages of 200 pills. Bi then informed the Lao man about the incident.
At 8:00 a.m. on December 27, 2018, while working in the field, Bi received a call from Lu Va to meet him to deliver drugs to Vietnam for a customer. About 30 minutes later, Lu Va went with 2 men to the field to meet Bi.
Lu Va gave Bi a yellow snake bag containing 6 kg of crystal meth and 8 packages of pink meth pills, and told him to sell it for 48,000 USD. He also gave Bi 9 packages of pink meth pills as samples for free.
Bi put all the drugs in a bag and kept it in the bedroom, then contacted the buyer. At 9am the same day, Bi carried the backpack containing the drugs and walked through the forest to the Vietnam border.
About 4 hours later, Bi went to Muong Phu village, Thong Thu commune, Que Phong district and saw Lai waiting. Bi handed over the bag of drugs to Lai and was checked and arrested by the working group of Thong Thu Border Guard Station. The seized evidence was drugs with a total weight of 10,772.42 grams of Methamphetamine.
At the trial, Tho No Bi confessed his crime. Bi said that a Lao man asked him to find someone to buy drugs. For this job, Bi was promised 2 million Lao kip (equivalent to 5.5 million VND), but the defendant had not received any payment before being arrested.
Having the last word, Bi asked for a chance to live to reunite with his family and take care of his 9 children.
The panel of judges determined that the defendant trafficked in a very large quantity of drugs. Although the defendant had some mitigating circumstances such as honest confession, good character, first offense, and his father received a Certificate of Merit from the Lao PDR, due to the large quantity of drugs, the panel sentenced Tho No Bi to death.
