Woman pays the price after 5 drug trafficking offenses.
Despite being a drug addict and having served four prison sentences for drug-related offenses, Phan Thi Thu Ha reverted to her old ways. She traveled to Hanoi to buy drugs and then brought them back to Nghe An to sell to customers, where she was arrested by the police and paid the price with many years in prison.
On February 25th, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first-instance trial of two defendants, Phan Thi Thu Ha (born in 1977, residing in Dong Thuan ward, Quang Tri province) and Pham Hoang Chau (born in 1985, residing in Truong Vinh ward, Nghe An province), on charges of illegally trading narcotics.
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Phan Thi Thu Ha is a defendant with a bad criminal record, having served four prison sentences for drug-related offenses. After her release from prison, in April 2025, Phan Thi Thu Ha met a man named Ha (whose identity is unknown) – a former cellmate she met while serving her sentence at Dong Son Prison – Ministry of Public Security. During their conversation, Thu Ha told her friend to contact her if he had any drug buyers.
On May 18, 2025, while Phan Thi Thu Ha was in Hanoi, a man named Ha contacted her saying, "There's a customer who wants to buy 5 taels of methamphetamine." Ha then contacted a man named Dung (a previous acquaintance from whom she had bought drugs for personal use) and was quoted a price of 170 million VND. Ha then relayed the price to the buyer as 190 million VND.
Two days later, Ha received the drugs from Dung and took them back to Nghe An to sell. On the way back, Ha contacted an acquaintance, Pham Hoang Chau, asking him to pick up and hide the drugs.
At 6 PM that same day, Phan Thi Thu Ha told Chau to bring the drugs to a guesthouse in Hung Nguyen commune (Nghe An province) to sell to a customer. When Chau hesitated, Ha said she would pay extra. Hearing this, Chau agreed and brought the drugs to the meeting point, then called Ha to let her know.
Late that night, when Phan Thi Thu Ha went to the guesthouse area, near where Chau kept the drugs, she was arrested by law enforcement along with the evidence, which consisted of more than 486 grams of drugs.
At the trial, both defendants admitted to committing the crime out of greed. They confessed to being drug addicts and lacking stable employment, which led them to re-offend. Both defendants tearfully pleaded with the court for leniency.
The panel of judges determined that in this case, defendant Phan Thi Thu Ha committed the crime as the instigator, and therefore sentenced her to 20 years in prison. Meanwhile, defendant Pham Hoang Chau committed the crime as an accomplice, and therefore sentenced him to 18 years in prison for the crime of illegally trafficking narcotics.
