Is transporting fresh opium punishable by imprisonment?
(Baonghean.vn) - Will my brother be imprisoned if he is accused of transporting 10kg of fresh opium? However, my brother did not know that the package was drugs, so does that act constitute a crime? This is a concern of Mr. Bui Ha (Quy Chau district, Nghe An).
Reply:Currently, the crime of illegal transportation of narcotics is regulated in Article 250 of the 2015 Penal Code, amended and supplemented by Clause 67, Article 1 of the 2017 Penal Code.
* In the above case, Clause 1, Article 250 stipulates as follows:
1. Anyone who illegally transports narcotics without the purpose of illegally manufacturing, trading, or storing narcotics in one of the following cases shall be sentenced to imprisonment from 02 to 07 years:
a) Having been administratively sanctioned for the acts specified in this Article or having been convicted of this crime or one of the crimes specified in Articles 248, 249, 251 and 252 of this Code, not having had the criminal record expunged, and still committing the violation;
b) Opium resin, cannabis resin or coca extract weighing from 01 gram to less than 500 grams;
c) Heroine, Cocaine, Methamphetamine, Amphetamine, MDMA or XLR-11 weighing from 0.1 gram to less than 05 grams;
d) Coca leaves; khat leaves (Catha edulis leaves); leaves, roots, stems, branches, flowers, fruits of the cannabis plant or other plant parts containing narcotic substances as prescribed by the Government with a weight from 01 kilogram to less than 10 kilograms;
d) Dried opium fruit weighing from 05 kilograms to less than 50 kilograms;
e) Fresh opium fruit weighing from 01 kilogram to less than 10 kilograms;
g) Other solid drugs weighing from 01 gram to less than 20 grams;
h) Other liquid narcotics with a volume from 10 milliliters to less than 100 milliliters;
i) Possessing 02 or more narcotic substances whose total mass or volume is equivalent to the mass or volume of the narcotic substance specified in one of the points from point b to point h of this clause.
* The act of illegally transporting narcotics only constitutes a crime as prescribed in Article 250 of the 2015 Penal Code when the person who illegally transports narcotics knows that the substance he is transporting is a narcotic.
They must be aware that their illegal drug trafficking is dangerous to society but still intentionally commit the act for personal gain or other personal motives for their behavior to satisfy the signs of constituting this crime.
Thus, transporting fresh opium fruit weighing from 01 kilogram to less than 10 kilograms without the purpose of producing, trading, or illegally storing drugs can be punished with imprisonment from 02 to 07 years.
In the case where a person transports drugs but does not know that they are drugs (and can prove it), then that act does not satisfy the elements of a crime. In other words, if the transporter is not aware that they are drugs, he will not be criminally prosecuted for this crime.