Transporting crystal meth, sentenced to life in prison

(Baonghean.vn)- Hired by an acquaintance to transport 5kg of crystal meth from Lang Son to Saigon for 100 million VND, Minh hired Van to transport it for 75 million VND. Van was arrested when she brought the drugs to Vinh City (Nghe An).

On August 19, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance criminal trial of Dang Van Minh (born 1975) and Nguyen Ngoc Van (born 1970), both residing in Dong Dang town, Cao Loc district, Lang Son province, for the crime of "illegally transporting drugs".

On the morning of November 18, 2015, Dang Van Minh received a phone call from A Cuong (a Chinese man) who hired Minh to transport crystal meth to Ho Chi Minh City for 20 million VND/kg. At the border area between Vietnam and China, Cuong gave Minh 5kg of crystal meth and gave him an advance of 20 million VND. Minh brought the drugs home to hide.

Then, Dang Van Minh hired Nguyen Ngoc Van to transport the drugs to Saigon for 15 million VND/kg of crystal meth. Minh gave Van 10 million VND in advance for travel expenses.

Dang Van Minh (left) and Nguyen Ngoc Van (right) in the dock

On November 19, 2015, Van took a train from Lang Son to Hanoi and bought a bus ticket to Ho Chi Minh City. Van hid the drugs under the seat.

At 9:00 p.m. on November 19, 2015, when the passenger bus was moving to Quan Bau ward, Vinh city (Nghe An), the Drug Crime Investigation Police Department of the provincial police in coordination with the Drug Crime Investigation Department (Ministry of Public Security) discovered and arrested Nguyen Ngoc Van with evidence of 9 packages of crystal meth weighing more than 4.9 kg. Based on Van's testimony, the authorities arrested Dang Van Minh.

At the trial, the two defendants confessed their crimes. Considering that the defendants’ actions were dangerous, violated the State’s monopoly on the purchase, sale and management of narcotics, and had bad personal records (Dang Van Minh was sentenced to 3 years in prison for “illegal possession of narcotics” and 8 years in prison for “harboring illegal use of narcotics” and his criminal record was cleared; Nguyen Ngoc Van was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “storing and transporting counterfeit money” and 30 months in prison for “illegal possession of narcotics”), the panel sentenced the two defendants to life in prison for the above crimes.

Nhu Binh