Buying cheap drugs 'profits' for 20 years in prison

On June 10, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Nguyen Van Cong (born 1991), residing in Quan Hanh town (Nghi Loc) for the crime of "Illegal possession of drugs”.

Nguyen Van Cong is a defendant with a bad personal history, having been sentenced to prison 5 times by courts at all levels for the crimes of: Robbery, Illegal possession of drugs and Illegal drug trafficking.

On April 25, 2020, Cong finished serving his sentence, but 8 months later, he was involved in drugs again.

Defendant Nguyen Van Cong was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Photo: Tran Vu

According to the indictment, around early December 2020, Cong took a bus to Nghia Dan district to meet an acquaintance named Trung. This person said he had drugs and asked Cong if he would buy them and would sell them at a cheap price. After the above invitation, Cong agreed to buy a package of drugs for 28 million VND.

After that, Cong took the drugs to a motel to use gradually. At about 5:00 p.m. on December 23, 2020, Cong took the remaining drugs to a friend's house in Vinh City to play.

Before entering his friend’s house, Cong hid the drugs under a tree. After driving for 15 minutes, Cong was signaled by the police to stop the car and asked to return to the place where he hid the drugs. The investigation agency determined that Nguyen Van Cong was responsible for possessing more than 224 grams of drugs.

At the trial, the defendant stated that he bought the drugs for his own use, not for sale. He told the court that because the seller sold the drugs at a cheap price, he bought a large quantity for his own use.

The panel of judges determined that in this case the defendant had an aggravating circumstance of recidivism, so they sentenced Nguyen Van Cong to 20 years in prison for the crime of "Illegal possession of narcotics".