Death penalty for man transporting 25kg of drugs between provinces

On September 26, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of defendant Pham Xuan Tai (born 1979; residing in Co Bi commune, Binh Giang district, Hai Duong province) for the crime of "illegally transporting narcotics".

Defendant Phan Xuan Tai at trial. Photo: An Quynh

At the trial, the defendant confessed: On July 10, 2021, Tai was hired by a subject to go to Nghe An to transport drugs to Hanoi for a salary of 100 million VND.

At that time, Tai lost a large amount of money betting on the EURO football tournament, so when he saw that the job was simple and the pay was high, Tai immediately agreed.

On the afternoon of July 12, Tai drove to Nghe An to wait for orders to receive the "goods". Following the instructions of the hirer, that same evening, Tai went to Thanh Thuy border gate (Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An) to receive the drugs. Here, Tai met two men he did not know and received a bag containing many types of drugs. On the way to Hanoi, Tai was arrested by the authorities with the following evidence: 18 kg of crystal meth, 3 kg of ketamine and more than 50,000 synthetic drug pills. The appraisal results showed that the amount of evidence seized from Pham Xuan Tai was nearly 25 kg of various types of drugs.

In the backpack that Pham Xuan Tai carried with him, there was also a gun and 7 bullets. Tai confessed that he was only transporting drugs and did not know that there was a gun in the bag, so the authorities did not have enough evidence to determine that Pham Xuan Tai was the one.illegal possession of military weapons.

Arrested with a particularly large amount of drugs, at the trial, the defendant confessed honestly, showing remorse and regret. The defendant stated that because of greed, he transported drugs but in reality, he had not received any payment. Considering that in this case, the defendant transported more than 25 kg of drugs without realizing the consequences if the drugs were successfully traded, this act needs to be strictly handled. Therefore, the court sentenced defendant Pham Xuan Tai to death for the crime of illegal transportation of drugs.