Sentenced to life imprisonment after more than 20 years on the run from a warrant.
After selling five blocks of heroin to customers on two separate occasions with his accomplices, Va Gia Tenh fled to Laos. Twenty-one years later, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.
On April 9th, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial to hear the case against defendant Va Gia Tenh (born in 1960), residing in Tri Le commune, Que Phong district (Nghe An province), for the crime of "Illegal trafficking of narcotics.
The case involving the defendant occurred more than 21 years ago. Specifically, around August 2004, Va Gia Tenh assisted Va Cha Tho in selling two blocks of heroin to a customer.
When Tếnh heard Thò's daughter come to his house and say, "Uncle, come down here and see if there are any customers buying drugs. If there are, you go with them to deliver the drugs." Hearing this, Tếnh immediately went to Thò's house.
After sampling the drugs, the group agreed to buy two blocks of heroin for $3,600 each. For this transaction, Tếnh received 1 million dong as commission from Thò.
Besides that one transaction, Va Gia Tenh also assisted Va Cha Tho in selling drugs a second time. On September 10, 2004, the same group of customers came to Tho's house again to buy 3 blocks of heroin.
Seeing a customer arrive to buy drugs, Tho called Va Gia Tenh over to his house. Afterwards, Tenh had dinner with everyone. During the meal, the customer asked Tho and Tenh to buy 3 blocks of heroin.
At this point, Tho went into the bedroom to get the drugs to sell to the customers. At 10 PM that same day, when the group of customers left, Tenh took on the task of leading them away.
After committing the crime, Va Gia Tenh fled to Laos, living in the Vieng Thoong hamlet, Muong Quan district, Hua Phan province. On June 22, 2024, he was arrested pursuant to an arrest warrant.
The investigating agency determined that Va Gia Tenh is criminally liable for the illegal buying and selling of 5 blocks of heroin, totaling over 1.7 kg of narcotics, on two separate occasions.
At the trial, the defendant testified that due to poverty, he accompanied the individuals to receive payment. Defendant Tênh claimed that he only assisted and did not participate directly in the drug trafficking.
After the suspects were arrested, the defendant, out of fear, fled to Laos.
Standing before the witness stand, the defendant presented his difficult circumstances, advanced age, and frail health to request the court to consider mitigating circumstances and reduce his sentence.
The panel of judges determined that in this case, the defendant had an aggravating circumstance of committing the crime two or more times. Therefore, the court sentenced Va Gia Tenh to life imprisonment for the crime of "Illegal trafficking of narcotics".