The pain of a student's mother who became a drug trafficker to get paid for her room

1 move equals 1 month's rent

“My husband and I have 3 children, Chien is the youngest. I work in the fields and my husband works as a construction worker. For many years, our family was poor and then near-poor, but my husband and I always tried to send our children to university to find job opportunities and escape the life of working hard. Unexpectedly, Chien listened to people's enticements and went to transport drugs like that...”. Those were the bitter confessions of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Phuong (51 years old), mother of defendant Dang Van Chien (born 1999), residing in Cong Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, who was brought to trial by the People's Court of Nghe An province for the crime of “Illegal transportation of drugs”.

In this case, there is another accomplice, defendant Nguyen Huu Binh (born 1997), residing in Hung Yen Nam commune, Hung Nguyen district.

In the hallway of the courtroom, Mrs. Phuong could not help but feel restless when she saw her son being escorted to court. His sad face and dark skin made the woman of just over 51 years old even more miserable.

The sadness of a mother whose son got into trouble with the law while he was in his final year of university. Photo:Tran Vu

She said that since her son was arrested, she has not had a full night’s sleep. Her health was already weak after an accident that broke her leg a few years ago, and the great mental pain has made her even more depressed.

At the time of his arrest, Dang Van Chien was a senior student at a university in Vinh City. On the evening of September 9, 2020, while Chien was on an errand, he received a phone call from Nguyen Huu Binh. This person asked Chien to stay in his rented room for one night. Thinking that it was a friend's place, Chien showed Binh where the room key was kept. After opening the door of the rented room, Binh brought in a cardboard box. This was the box containing drugs that Binh agreed to transport for a man named Ha (a former cellmate whose identity and specific address Binh did not know) for 5 million VND.

The next morning, Chien returned to his rented room and saw the box in the middle of the room, so he asked Binh, “What is it?”. Binh replied, “illegal goods.” Chien continued to ask, “What are the illegal goods?” and Binh said, “Candy.” Then, Binh took the package of drugs out of the box, put it in his backpack, put it in the attic of his rented room, and went home.

At 3:00 p.m. on September 13, 2020, Binh told Chien to buy 2 bags of corn, put 2 packages of drugs in them to send to recipients in Ninh Binh and Quang Ninh provinces. Binh told Chien to take 1 bag of corn containing drugs to the Ben Thuy 2 bridge area to catch a bus to send to the recipient, but failed, so he returned to his room and was arrested by the police.

Dang Van Chien took drugs from his rented room and handed them over to the police. That same evening, Nguyen Huu Binh went to the police station to confess to the crime of illegally transporting drugs. The investigation agency determined that Nguyen Huu Binh and Dang Van Chien must bear criminal responsibility for transporting more than 800 grams of crystal meth.

At the witness stand, defendant Nguyen Huu Binh initially admitted that he only knew that the goods were contraband that a man named Ha had asked him to transport for 5 million VND. However, later, the defendant admitted that he knew the “candy” was crystal meth but still agreed because of greed.

Defendant Dang Van Chien did not admit to transporting crystal meth. He admitted that he only knew that it was “illegal goods” as told by Binh. Defendant Chien said he agreed to let Binh hide the “illegal goods” in the house and transport the “corn bag” to the bus because Binh had previously paid the landlord 1.5 million VND for the room.

"Closing the door" to the future with your own hands

Hearing her son confess to transporting “illegal goods” for his friend because Binh paid for a month’s rent, Mrs. Phuong shook her head in pain. She said that every month, her husband and she sent their son all the rent and other expenses. In addition, to save money, during the years Chien was in college, every week she prepared food such as vegetables, chicken eggs, duck eggs, pork, etc. and sent it by bus to her son. But the mother did not expect her son to fall into such a state.

Dang Van Chien was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Photo:Tran Vu

As if trying to prove her son's good nature, she said: Although he is a boy, Chiến is diligent, hard-working, and always knows how to help his parents with farm work. During the harvest season, every weekend he takes the bus home to harvest rice and dry straw for his parents. When he comes home, I don't see him hanging out with anyone. He said he will try to help his parents for a while longer because when he graduates from university, he will register to work abroad like his brother. Hearing him say that, my husband and I were very happy because we knew he had grown up, but he...

After hearing the representative of the People's Procuracy propose a life sentence for the two defendants, Mrs. Phuong seemed unable to keep calm anymore, she cried in pain. Despite her grief, when she met her son during the court's deliberation, Mrs. Phuong deliberately calmed down and advised her son to "stand up for what he did wrong."

Considering that in this case, the defendant Dang Van Chien was an accomplice of the defendant Binh. Although Chien gave a evasive statement, only admitting that it was “banned goods” and not drugs, but based on the defendant Binh’s statement, there was sufficient basis to determine that the defendant’s criminal act was the right person, the right crime, and the right law. Considering the role of each defendant in the case, the panel sentenced Dang Van Chien to 20 years in prison, and defendant Nguyen Huu Binh to life in prison for “Illegal transportation of narcotics”.

The 20-year prison sentence closed the door to the future of a male student about to graduate...