Paying a heavy price for a promise of 1 million dong in wages.

While gathering marijuana, they "conveniently" transported drugs.

Trial Xìa Súa (60 years old), residing in Mường Lống village, Tri Lễ commune (Nghệ An province), was charged with "illegally transporting narcotics" on a day in early 2026. Súa was escorted to court looking haggard and dark-skinned. The hardship was clearly visible on the defendant's face.

Súa lived in a mountainous area, so he mostly stayed within his village from birth until he got married. To earn a living and raise his children, Súa mainly worked in the fields and raised livestock. One day, while gathering grass for his animals, Súa met a stranger. From that encounter, he fell into a life of crime and was arrested.

Va Xia Sua's criminal act was quite simple. At noon on June 22, 2025, while Sua was gathering grass, she encountered a man riding a motorbike. This man stopped, struck up a conversation, and hired Sua to transport drugs from Muong Long village to National Highway 16 (in Tam Tien village, Muong Quang commune) for a fee of 1 million VND.

Without hesitation, Súa agreed and requested payment in advance. However, the other party promised to pay in full after the delivery, so Súa agreed. The person then handed over a bag containing 10 packages of drugs (equivalent to 2000 pills, weighing over 193 grams) and told Súa to get on the motorbike to go to the delivery location. But after only a short distance, they were signaled to stop by law enforcement. At this point, the motorbike driver sped away, while Súa was apprehended along with the evidence. For this crime, Và Xìa Súa was prosecuted and brought to trial for the crime of illegally transporting narcotics.

Greedy for 1 million dong, resulting in 20 years in prison.

Being illiterate, unable to speak standard Vietnamese, and having limited legal awareness, Súa faced many difficulties during the background check before the trial. Súa also couldn't clearly remember the names and ages of her parents. She also couldn't recall how many children she and her husband had, and needed time to think about it.

In response to the judges' questions, the defendant initially denied transporting drugs for hire. He claimed he didn't know the bag the man hired him to transport contained drugs. "You claim you didn't know it contained drugs, but how do you explain being paid millions of dong for such a short distance?" the judge asked. The defendant remained silent.

Subsequently, the defendant admitted to transporting drugs for hire as charged in the indictment. Justifying his actions, Súa stated that he did it because it was on his way to collect marijuana, and since the distance was short, he thought it wouldn't be a problem.

“They promised to pay me 1 million dong, but I haven’t received it yet. I feel very remorseful; I haven’t benefited at all from this case,” the interpreter relayed the defendant’s statement. The defendant presented his difficult family circumstances, his status as a member of an ethnic minority group, his illiteracy, and his limited understanding of the law, requesting the court to consider mitigating circumstances and reduce his sentence.

Exercising their prosecutorial power at the trial, the representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office presented their arguments against the defendant. Accordingly, the defendant's transportation of 2000 drug pills was a violation of the law, and they requested a 20-year prison sentence. At this point, the defendant's son, sitting below, suddenly knelt down. He clasped his hands together, sobbing, and begged the judges to be lenient with his father.

Hearing the sobbing of his relatives below, Súa's eyes welled up with tears. Because of his greed for 1 million dong, the defendant had brought his life into legal trouble, leaving behind pain for his family, wife, and children. Therefore, during the court's deliberation, Súa repeatedly turned to apologize to his wife and children. He also reminded his children to work hard and not break the law like him. "Dad was wrong, please take care of Mom, and wait for the day I come home," Súa said, his voice choked with emotion.

Living in a border area where drug-related crime is rampant, Sua knew that buying, selling, and transporting drugs was illegal. However, driven by the lure of 1 million dong, the defendant disregarded the law and violated it. As a result, defendant Va Xia Sua has now received a 20-year prison sentence for illegally transporting narcotics.

Behind every sentence handed down lies the pain of both the offender and their family. Even if the defendant expresses remorse, it is now too late. This serves as a warning to anyone who is currently or intends to profit illegally from drugs: stop before it's too late.