Illegal possession of explosives for stone mining, sentenced to 4 years in prison

According to the indictment, at about 11:00 a.m. on October 24, 2017, the Environmental Police Department (Nghe An Provincial Police) coordinated with Tan Ky District Police and Nghia Phuc Commune Police to inspect Tran Van Thanh's private house and discovered on the horizontal floor a bag of green snake carcasses containing 25 aluminum bars with yellow and red wires (suspected to be electric detonators) and 17 white ethylene bags, each bag containing 10 brown cylindrical solid bars, each bag weighing 2kg, for a total of 170 bars weighing 34kg (suspected to be explosives).

Subject Tran Van Thanh. Photo: Phuong Hao

Thanh confessed to buying this explosive data from a man named Son in Nghia Dan district.

At 10:30 p.m. the same day, the Investigation Agency (Nghe An Provincial Police) executed an emergency search warrant at the house of Cao Van Son, born in 1968, residing in Hamlet 8, Nghia Duc Commune (Nghia Dan District). The search results seized 2 gray-brown solid bars, wrapped in brown moisture-proof paper (suspected explosives), 3 small white metal tubes with a small blue electric wire attached to one end (suspected electric detonators), and a 16.3 m long black wire coil (suspected slow-burning fuse).

During the investigation, Tran Van Thanh confessed: Occasionally, he quarries construction stone at Len Roi, Nghia Phuc commune. Therefore, to serve the quarrying work, Thanh intended to buy explosive materials floating on the market for use.

Due to their previous acquaintance, at 11:00 a.m. on October 22, 2017, Thanh called Cao Van Son to discuss buying explosives, and Son agreed. Thanh and Son agreed on a price of 50,000 VND/kg of explosives and 15,000 VND/electric detonator. Thanh bought 34 kg of explosives and 25 electric detonators for a total of 5,475,000 VND. CThat same day, Thanh gave Son money to buy explosives.

At around 5-6pm on October 23, 2017, Thanh called Son and asked, “Do you have the explosives yet?” Son said, “Yes,” so Thanh made an appointment to go to Son’s house to get them on the morning of October 24, 2017. As promised, Thanh rode his motorbike to Son’s house to get the explosives and brought them home. At 11am on April 22, 2017, Thanh was discovered by the authorities and caught red-handed, confiscating a green snake bag containing 34kg of explosives and 25 electric detonators.

As for Cao Van Son, after an urgent search of his residence, the investigation agency seized 2 explosives, 3 electric detonators, and a 16.3 meter long slow-burning wire. Son was summoned to clarify the matter, but Son only admitted to having an acquaintanceship with Thanh and did not sell explosives to Thanh. Regarding the explosives seized at Son's house, Son stated that he used to work as a quarryman for Tan Phuc Private Enterprise in Nghia Duc Commune, Nghia Dan District, and had leftovers so he brought them home to keep.

The forensic conclusion of the Criminal Techniques Department (Nghe An Provincial Police) showed that the samples seized from Thanh and Son were industrial explosives, detonators, and slow-burning fuses.

At the end of the trial, the panel sentenced Tran Van Thanh to 4 years in prison. As for Cao Van Son, according to Thanh's testimony, the investigation agency investigated Son's actions but did not have enough basis to conclude that he had committed a crime. The amount of materials seized at Son's house was also not enough to handle the crime according to the provisions of Article 232 of the Penal Code.