Nghe An man carries nearly 3 billion VND to trade drugs

On May 23, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial of three defendants, Kha Van Cong (born in 1983, residing in Ngoc Lam commune); Le Hong Nam (born in 1977, residing in Hanh Lam commune) and Quang Van La (born in 1994, residing in Thanh Son commune), Thanh Chuong district, for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking".

Defendants Quang Van La, Kha Van Cong, and Le Hong Nam at the trial. Photo: Quynh An.

At around 8:00 a.m. on July 4, 2018, in the Ho Chi Minh trail area, the Drug Crime Investigation Police Department (Nghe An Police) discovered and caught Kha Van Cong and Quang Van La red-handed illegally transporting drugs, seizing 19 white powder cakes and 4 plastic bags containing white crystals in the passenger seat of the car. Kha Van Cong and Quang Van La confessed that they bought the drugs from Laotians to deliver to Le Hong Nam.

Hearing that his accomplices had been arrested, Le Hong Nam quickly fled. A wanted notice for Le Hong Nam was issued shortly thereafter. It was not until 4 months later (November 3, 2018) that the authorities discovered and arrested Nam while he was hiding in the deep forest of Anh Son district.

According to the investigation and the testimony of the 3 defendants: During the period from June to July 2018, Le Hong Nam, Kha Van Cong and Quang Van La discussed and agreed that Nam would give money to Cong and La to buy drugs to transport from Laos to Nam for consumption in the southern provinces.

The first cross-border business deal was in June 2018, Nam gave Cong 150 million VND, Cong and La went to Cau Treo border gate (Ha Tinh) to buy a package of drugs weighing 950.135 grams from a Laotian and then transported it to Thanh Thuy commune (Thanh Chuong, Nghe An) to deliver to Nam for sale. Nam paid Cong 7 million VND and La 5 million VND for the fee.

Seeing that the first time was successful, they discussed and prepared for the next mission.

On July 3, 2018, Nam gave Kha Van Cong 2.8 billion VND to buy 19 heroin cakes weighing 6,607.98 grams and 04 packages of crystal meth weighing 3,800.54 grams from Lao people. Quang Van La went with Kha Van Cong to transport the above drugs from Cau Treo border gate to Hanh Lam commune (Thanh Chuong) to deliver to Nam for sale.

After calculating the profit, Nam and La will receive 200 million VND, Cong will receive 100 million VND. At about 8:00 a.m. on July 4, 2018, when Cong and La were transporting drugs to Thanh Thuy commune, Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An, they were caught red-handed by Nghe An Provincial Police.

According to the indictment, Le Hong Nam, Kha Van Cong and Quang Van La had twice illegally bought and sold 19 heroin cakes weighing 6,607.98 grams and 05 packages of crystal meth weighing 4,750.675 grams. The total weight of the drugs that Le Hong Nam, Kha Van Cong and Quang Van La illegally bought and sold was 11,358.655 grams.

The defendants Le Hong Nam, Kha Van Cong and Quang Van La were given mitigating circumstances due to their honest confession and repentance; Le Hong Nam had achievements in helping the police discover and arrest criminals, and his biological parents were awarded the Resistance Medal by the State. However, Le Hong Nam, Kha Van Cong and Quang Van La had aggravating circumstances of committing crimes multiple times.

The panel of judges determined: This was an extremely dangerous act, illegally buying and selling a large quantity of drugs. Considering the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the court decided to sentence Kha Van Cong and Le Hong Nam to death and Quang Van La to life in prison.