Confession of a woman who picked up drugs and brought them home to sell

Picked up drugs, got greedy and brought them home to hide and sell.

At the end of March 2020, Lo Thi Chien (born 1967), residing in Minh Phuong village, Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong, was escorted to the courtroom. The auditorium was deserted, not a single relative could be seen anywhere, suddenly, Chien's face became wrinkled. The woman huddled in her t-shirt, burst into tears.

Lo Thi Chien got married and had four children when the drug storm swept through Luong Minh commune. In the 90s of the last century, Minh Phuong village and many other villages in this mountainous commune were immersed in the "darkness" of drugs. People in prison, addicts, and people infected with HIV due to drug injections made this poor village even more desolate.

Illustration photo.

Abandoned rice and corn fields. Instead of diligently plowing and hoeing, many people earn money with drugs because just one successful trip can buy enough rice to last the whole year. People only see the immediate benefits without thinking that this ghost will push many people into a state of physical and mental ruin or prison.

With 4 young children, hunger, poverty and laziness surrounding her, Lo Thi Chien also followed others into drug trafficking. When her youngest child was 5 years old, Lo Thi Chien was arrested and sentenced to 7 years in prison for “Illegal drug trafficking”. Thanks to her good behavior, Chien was released 2 years early from prison.

In 2012, after her prison term ended, it was thought that Chien would be afraid and stop using drugs, but then greed sent this woman back to prison for the second time.

In mid-2019, her husband passed away. At this time, her 3 children were also married, Chien lived with her daughter who had pancreatic disease. At noon on December 7, Chien waded across the river to get firewood and discovered a black plastic bag in the bushes. Opening it, she saw 7 small packages wrapped in many layers of plastic. After tearing off the layers of plastic, she found many pink tablets, white crystals and white powder. With the experience of a former drug dealer, Chien knew these were heroin, pink pills and crystal meth. "Someone must have hidden them here to "avoid" the police", Chien thought. Without losing any capital, if she sold them successfully, she could earn a large sum of money. Looking around and seeing no one, Chien stuffed the drugs into her body and brought them home, hiding them in the chicken coop waiting for customers to sell.

Since the day he picked up the drugs, Chien has not had a good night's sleep because he is anxiously waiting for the opportunity to "sell" the drugs. When the clock pointed to December 11, 2019, while he was dozing off, Chien was startled by the phone ringing. On the other end of the line was a man. He said he needed to buy drugs and asked if Chien had any to sell. While he was feeling like he was "holding a time bomb" in the house, there was a buyer, Chien quickly brought the goods to the meeting place to make the transaction.

The last night of the year, the fog was thick and cold, and Chien was drenched in sweat. She groped her way in the dark, trying not to make a sound. When she reached the sewer at the beginning of the village, the customer was already waiting. After the signal, the customer asked to check the goods. Chien had just opened a few packages of drugs to show the customer when the working group of Con Cuong district police suddenly appeared. Chien was arrested with 7 packages of various drugs. The customer took advantage of the darkness to disappear.

20 years in prison is death!

Chien did not deny her crime but honestly admitted all the acts that were charged in the indictment. This woman only hoped to receive leniency from the law. “My husband is dead, my child is sick, if I go to jail, who will take care of my child? I hope the panel of judges will be lenient and give me a light sentence, I know I was wrong,” Chien said in court. Assessing all of the defendant’s criminal acts, the representative of the Provincial People’s Procuracy who held the right to prosecute at the trial requested the panel of judges to sentence Lo Thi Chien to 19-20 years in prison.

Lo Thi Chien at the trial. Photo: Nhu Binh

“I'll die in 20 years!”, Chien lamented sadly while waiting for the jury to deliberate.

“Why didn’t you report the drugs to the police instead of selling them? Aren’t you afraid of going to jail?” I asked.

“My husband died, my child is sick, and I am so poor. Now I am scared to think about going to jail, but at that time I was so greedy, I was blinded by greed, I could not think of anything else but being a cadre” - Chien replied.

Chien mentioned a man named Tinh - who called to ask to buy drugs, then this woman who was not afraid of prison "rewind" the chorus of poverty and sick children to justify her crime. "20 years in prison is... too long. Who will take care of my sick child?", Chien lamented. Referring to her three other healthy children who were not present at the trial, Lo Thi Chien sighed. Since being arrested, Chien has rarely seen her children, and she has no chance to see her grandchildren. This woman came to court to receive the verdict of the law with the hope of seeing her relatives again, but then had to be sad and regretful. Chien also did not know if it was because her children did not know the trial schedule or for some other reason that they did not come.

The panel of judges determined that Lo Thi Chien’s actions were particularly serious, infringing on the state’s exclusive right to manage drugs. Recently, there have been many heartbreaking cases involving drug use, people losing control of their behavior due to drug use. Chien’s actions have caused instability in local security and order, causing public outrage.

The defendant was sentenced to 7 years in prison for drug-related crimes but did not take that as a lesson to reform. The defendant cannot use illiteracy, lack of legal knowledge, or poverty as excuses for her criminal behavior. However, during the investigation and public trial, Lo Thi Chien confessed honestly, showed remorse, was an ethnic minority, had limited awareness, and was currently raising a sick child, so her sentence should be considered for a reduction according to the law.

Considering the case as a whole, based on the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the panel sentenced Lo Thi Chien to 20 years in prison. The sentence left Chien stunned, as if she could not stand still. How many times would a woman who had crossed the other side of her life have 20 years to start over? Chien trudged along following the prison officers, worried about her sick child. Her mother was in prison, her siblings were busy with food, clothing, and their own families, would anyone replace her mother to take care of her younger sibling?