Death penalty for man transporting 6 sacks of drugs
Before being executed for transporting 6 sacks of drugs, defendant Vinh had been in and out of prison during his youth for many crimes.
On May 3, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced defendant Nguyen Thanh Vinh (57 years old, residing in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City) to death for the crime of "Illegal transportation of narcotics".
According to the prosecution, at about 10:00 p.m. on June 4, 2022, the Working Group of the Department of Investigation Police on Drug Crimes - Ho Chi Minh City Police in coordination with the Department of Investigation Police on Drug Crimes - Ministry of Public Security discovered and caught Vinh red-handed transporting drugs with an especially large quantity.
Through inspection, the working group seized 6 sacks with a total weight of nearly 100 kg of drugs. After quick investigation, Vinh confessed that he was transporting these drugs for Tran Van Hai (now deceased).
Soon after, Hai was arrested, and police seized another 9 kg of drugs from him.
According to Vinh's testimony, the two met while serving prison sentences at K45 Prison, Military Region 7. After being released from prison, Vinh and Hai returned to their hometowns and regularly contacted each other.
On June 2, 2022, Hai called Vinh to ask him to find a car to rent to take him to work. After renting the car, Vinh went to District 4 to pick up Hai and a man named Lam (unknown background).
Hai gave Vinh 5 million VND in advance to drive Lam to An Giang to get things for Hai.
At this time, Hai had not told Vinh that he was transporting drugs and promised to pay him an additional 20 million VND when he finished.
On the morning of June 3, 2022, Vinh and Lam went to Tan Chau town, An Giang province to receive 6 sacks of drugs from 2 men (unknown background). Only then did Vinh know that the sacks contained drugs.
After receiving the sacks, Lam told Vinh to drive back. When arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, Lam got out of the car and Vinh did not know where he went. Afterwards, Hai contacted and asked him to transport the drugs to District 4 for delivery. When Vinh drove to deliver, no one came to receive them, so Hai told Vinh to transport the drugs back to Hai's apartment building in Phu Xuan Commune, Nha Be District (Ho Chi Minh City). When Vinh arrived at Duong Thi Nam Street (Nha Be District), he was arrested by the police.
During the further investigation of the case, on January 11, Tran Van Hai died at Chi Hoa Hospital, Chi Hoa Prison, the cause of death was due to illness.
Because Hai died, the Investigation Police Agency, Ho Chi Minh City Police Department decided to suspend the investigation of the suspect.
As for defendant Vinh, before participating in drug trafficking, from 1992 to 2016, he had to serve 4 consecutive sentences for the crimes of: robbery, receiving property obtained by others through crime, robbery or open appropriation of citizens' property, and theft of property.
In addition, from 1981 to 1988, he was also arrested by District 4 Police, District 5 Police, and Phu Nhuan District Police for the following acts: murder, robbery, and theft of citizens' property. However, the verification results at the district police did not store data on the handling of Vinh.
At the trial, defendant Vinh confessed to the crime as charged in the indictment.
Considering that the defendant's criminal behavior is especially dangerous to society, infringing on the State's monopoly on drug management, it is necessary to deal with it strictly to have the effect of education, deterrence and general prevention.
Therefore, after consideration, the People's Court sentenced the defendant Vinh to the above sentence.
