Woman 'in jail' for selling drugs to construction worker many times

On September 28, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance criminal trial of three defendants: Lu Thi Thanh (born in 1979); Lu Van Thi (born in 1963), both residing in Muong Noc commune, Que Phong district, and Tran Van Binh (born in 1979), residing in Dien Phong commune, Dien Chau district, for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking”.

According to the indictment, Binh used to work as a construction worker in Muong Noc commune and became acquainted with Thanh. After that, within more than 1 month, from October to November 2021, Binh and Thanh illegally bought and sold drugs 3 times.

Lu Thi Thanh and the defendants at the trial. Photo: Tran Vu

The first time was on October 25, 2021, Binh was asked by a man named Ngoc to buy 2 packages of pink phien, promising to pay 1 million VND for the work. Binh agreed and called Thanh to place the "order". 2 days later, Binh took a bus to Kim Son town, Que Phong district to receive the drugs and gave Thanh 6 million VND. Binh delivered the above drugs to Ngoc and received 1 million VND for the work.

On November 1, 2021, Ngoc continued to ask Binh to buy 3 packages of pink phien. Just like the previous time, Binh contacted Thanh and made the transaction. For this shipment, Binh received 1.5 million VND in commission.

The third time, on November 15, 2021, Binh went to Thanh to buy 5 packages of opium to deliver to Ngoc. On the way back, Binh was arrested by the police.

Based on Binh's testimony, the investigation agency arrested Lu Thi Thanh. During the house search, Thanh voluntarily handed over a package of drugs to the investigation agency.

Regarding the origin of the drugs, Thanh said he bought them from Lu Van Thi. Working with the investigation agency, Thi admitted to only selling Thanh 2 packages of pink pills.

The investigation agency determined that in this case, Lu Thi Thanh must bear criminal responsibility for the act of buying and selling more than 226 grams of drugs. Tran Van Binh must bear responsibility for nearly 200 grams of drugs. Lu Van Thi must bear responsibility for nearly 40 grams of drugs.

At the trial, the defendants admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment. The defendants stated that they bought and sold drugs for profit.

The panel of judges determined that in this case, all defendants had aggravating circumstances. Binh and Thanh committed the crime two or more times, while Thi was a recidivist. Considering the role of each defendant, the court sentenced Lu Thi Thanh to 20 years in prison, Tran Van Binh to 19 years, and Lu Van Thi to 17 years.

As for Ngoc, this subject did not admit to asking Binh to buy drugs. With the collected documents, there is currently not enough basis to prosecute the case against Ngoc.