Drug lord Van Kinh Duong once contacted his family while on the run.

On the morning of May 8, ecstasy production boss Van Kinh Duong (38 years old, from Hanoi) and his lover Vu Hoang Anh Ngoc ("hot girl" Ngoc Miu, 25 years old, from Hai Phong) wore red shirts that stood out among the group of defendants brought to the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City.

Continuing the questioning, the panel questioned Duong about the chemicals purchased but not used to produce drugs, including mercury, magnesium, caffeine, salt... Duong replied: "These are substances used for cleaning and camouflage to conceal drug production."

In addition to making profits from producing ecstasy, the defendant also contributed 50% of the capital (1.3 billion VND) to run the Sen Hong coffee shop since September 2016. Each person managed a part, and the profits were divided according to the shares, but by the time Duong was arrested, he had not made any profit. The money to run the shop was borrowed from his family.

Called by the court, Duong's father said that over the phone he knew Duong was doing business in Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City. He sent his son money twice, totaling more than 4 billion. "I saw that he was doing business properly and needed money to open a shop, so I went to meet Duong in Saigon to give him the money. Because we are father and son, I don't have any documents to prove it," he said.

"Duong said he did not contact his family while he was on the run, so how did he meet Duong? Even though they are father and son, he must report a serious crime to the police," the judge questioned. "He is an only child, so because of fatherly love, I couldn't bear it," Duong's father said.

Previously, Duong said his parents sent him 4.5 billion VND to buy a house. The remaining 10,000 USD and 4,000 Yuan were earned from selling clothes.

Responding to the court, Vu Hoang Anh Ngoc said that the investigation agency confiscated her Mercedes E300 car and iPhone 7. She bought this car at the end of 2016 but had only paid 600 million VND. All the documents were mortgaged to the bank to borrow 1.4 billion VND to buy the car. She requested to hand over the car to the bank to settle the debt.

As an active accomplice to Duong, defendant Le Huong Giang (31 years old) previously stated that she met Duong in 2012 through a friend. She then met Ngoc Miu through Duong and was arranged by him to live with Duong's lover.

Giang was accused of being in charge of drug transactions for Duong in the Northern region. Specifically, when a customer bought drugs, Duong informed Giang to deliver the "goods" or asked Nguyen Dac Huy to pick them up and give them to the customer. Each time he delivered, Duong paid Giang a box of ecstasy pills and 500,000 VND for taxi fare. In total, the defendant delivered 17,500 ecstasy pills (equivalent to 35 boxes of drugs) to Duong's customers, mainly Nguyen Thi Thai Hang (aka Mrs. U) in Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong.

However, in response to the jury, Giang said he did not know that the "goods" and money he collected for Duong were related to drugs, but thought it was a clothing business. Since the end of 2016, knowing that Duong was dealing in drugs, Giang went to Hanoi and no longer worked for Duong. "The suitcase when he was arrested in Hanoi was handed over by the defendant himself, without knowing that it contained drugs. When the police opened it for him to see, the defendant realized it was drugs," Giang said.

She also denied that Duong paid her for delivering a box of ecstasy as stated in the presiding judge's testimony.

Similarly, Nguyen Thu Huyen stated that she did not know about the drug trade and only assisted Le Van Mang. It was not until March 2017 that the defendant realized it was drugs but was so scared that she did not know what to do.

Huyen admitted to taking coffee packages from Quan twice, but it was unclear how much drug was in the coffee packages. "After receiving them, the defendant brought them to Giang's room and did not give them to anyone else," she said.

In the trial on the afternoon of May 7, Duong admitted to all his crimes. He personally inspected and packaged the drugs and coffee packages. Duong hired Huyen and Giang to deliver the goods for him but did not tell the defendants that it was drugs. Duong only confessed this when working with the investigation agency. "The defendant asked Huyen and Giang to collect the money but they did not know it was money from selling drugs," Duong confessed, adding that he paid the defendants 15-30 million VND per month.

Van Kinh Duong was prosecuted for 5 crimes:Illegal drug trafficking, Fraudulent appropriation of property, Escape from detention, Forgery of seals and documents of agencies and organizationswith the maximum penalty being death.

Vu Hoang Anh Ngoc (25 years old, hot girl Ngoc Miu) was prosecuted for the crimeIllegal possession of drugswith the maximum penalty being life imprisonment.

Eight other defendants, including Le Van Mang, Pham Bao Quan, Nguyen Duc Ky Nam, Nguyen Ba Thanh, Le Huong Giang, Nguyen Dac Huy, Nguyen Thu Huyen, and Pham Thi Thu Huyen, were identified as Duong's active accomplices.