“Shipping” more than 14 kg of drugs, foreigner sentenced to life in prison
Xay Xayyasone was hired to transport more than 14 kg of drugs from Laos to Vietnam. However, the "order" was not successfully transported when the Laotian subject was arrested by Nghe An police.
The People's Court of Nghe An province has just opened the first instance trial of defendant Xay Xayyasone (35 years old), residing in Xaychalon village, Vieng Thong district, Bolikhamxay province (Laos) for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking".
According to the indictment, Xay Xayyasone met a man named Bo Hat (identity unknown) in Vientiane, Laos. On June 5, 2024, Bo Hat called to hire Xay to transport drugs to Vietnam to deliver to a customer, weighing about 10 kg, promising to pay 66 million Lao Kip. Xay agreed to the above offer.
At noon on June 7, Bo Hat drove Xay to the Cau Treo Border Gate (Ha Tinh). Afterwards, Xay went through the procedures to enter Vietnam alone. After entering the country, Xay went to a grocery store to get the motorbike that Bo Hat had bought earlier to go to Pho Chau town, Huong Son (Ha Tinh).
Following the instructions of Bo Hat, on the evening of June 9, Xay rode his motorbike up to Cau Treo Border Gate, and waited at the appointed location. Afterwards, a man gave Xay a backpack containing more than 14 kg of drugs.
Xay transported the drugs to landmark H7-741 on the Ho Chi Minh trail and hid the drugs in the bushes. Because there was no one to receive the drugs, Xay returned to Laos the next day, but the "goods" were still hidden in the same place.
On the morning of July 12, following the instructions of Bo Hat, Xay returned to Vietnam to check if there were any more drugs. If there were any, he would bring them to an area near the border so that Bo Hat could send someone to pick them up.
When he arrived, he found that there were still drugs, so Xay put them on his motorbike to take them near the border. However, when he arrived at Thanh Thuy commune, Thanh Chuong district (old), he was arrested by Nghe An authorities.
At the trial, through an interpreter, the defendant admitted to transporting drugs for hire. The defendant stated that due to difficult circumstances, his parents had passed away, and he had no stable job, he agreed when someone hired him to transport drugs.
The defendant stated that he did not know who Bo Hat was. Before committing the crime, the defendant was given some money by this subject for travel expenses.
The jury found that the defendant’s actions violated Vietnamese law and were dangerous to society. The defendant had transported a large quantity of drugs for hire and therefore needed to be severely punished. However, it was also necessary to consider some mitigating circumstances for the defendant, such as repentance and honest confession.
Considering the case as a whole, the Trial Panel sentenced Xay Xayyasone to life in prison for "Illegal transportation of narcotics".
