Having been in and out of prison many times, 6 young men gathered in a motel to sell drugs.

Bad past

The People's Court of Nghe An province has just opened a trial of 6 defendants including: Phan The Tien (born 1994), residing in Vinh Loc ward; Tran Manh Cuong (born 1994) and Tran Van Anh (born 1995), both residing in Cua Lo ward; Phan Xuan Son (born 1989) and Le Quoc Hung (born 1992), both residing in Vinh Phu ward (Nghe An) and Tran Minh Ly (born 1993), residing in Ha Tinh for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking".

The background check of the defendants by the Trial Council had to be prolonged because all 6 defendants had bad records. Although they were young, each defendant had been in and out of prison many times.

As the mastermind in the case, defendant Phan The Tien has two previous convictions, including an 8-year prison sentence for "Robbery" in 2016 and a 15-month prison sentence for "Intentionally damaging property" in 2022.

Not inferior to his senior, Tran Manh Cuong was also sentenced twice by the court to 24 months in prison and 18 months in prison for the crimes of "Illegal trading and possession of drugs".

Meanwhile, Tran Minh Ly was sentenced to 24 months in prison by the Ha Tinh City Court for "Theft of property" in 2011. Four years later, Ly continued to receive a 7-year prison sentence for "Illegal drug trafficking". One year later, this subject continued to receive an additional 4-year prison sentence for "Possession of drugs", thus forcing the defendant to serve a total sentence of 11 years and 6 months in prison.

This drug trafficking ring also has a rogue member named Phan Xuan Son. Son is 36 years old but has been to court 3 times. The lightest sentence Son received was 15 months of suspended imprisonment for "Fraudulent appropriation of property". And the highest sentence he was sentenced to was 7 years in prison for "Illegal drug trafficking".

Besides, Le Quoc Hung was a young man who was not married and dropped out of school early, so Hung followed bad friends in society. Therefore, he soon got into trouble with the law. The first crime Hung received was "Intentionally damaging property" with a sentence of 6 months in prison. Just after being released from prison, Hung committed the same crime again and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. In addition, this subject has been administratively punished many times.

The last link in the drug trafficking chain of this group is Tran Van Anh. This subject has 2 previous convictions for the crimes of "Receiving property obtained by others through crime" and "Illegal possession of drugs".

After serving their prison sentences, this group of young men gathered and linked together to trade drugs. To facilitate the purchase and sale of banned substances, the subjects rented long-term rooms at HT motel in Hung Loc commune, Vinh city (now Vinh Loc ward).

Rent a hotel to sell drugs

Taking advantage of the location of HT Hotel in a remote area, the group of subjects Tien, Cuong and Tung rented this hotel to organize drug sales to addicts in the former Vinh City and neighboring areas. To deceive the authorities, the group often changed the method, location and means of delivery, only selling to regular customers.

According to the investigation documents, in mid-March 2024, Tran Van Anh sold Phan The Tien 0.86 grams of drugs for 2 million VND. After that, Tien discussed with Cuong that when there was a customer buying drugs, Cuong would deliver them.

At noon on March 23, 2024, at the HT motel area, Tien and Cuong sold 500,000 VND worth of drugs to Tran Van Tung. That evening, when both subjects continued to sell 300,000 VND worth of drugs to Tung, they were discovered by the police.

Expanding the investigation, the authorities proved that on March 22, 2024, Tien was introduced by Le Quoc Hung to Phan Xuan Son to buy about 100 grams of crystal meth for Tien. After that, Son and Tien went to Ha Tinh to meet Ly and bought a quantity of drugs for 43 million VND.

After bringing the drugs back to the motel to try, the subjects found that the quality was not guaranteed so they exchanged the "goods". After exchanging the drugs, Tien asked Cuong to hide them to sell for profit.

The investigation agency determined that the total amount of drugs for which Phan The Tien, Tran Manh Cuong, Phan Xuan Son, Tran Minh Ly, and Le Quoc Hung must bear criminal responsibility is more than 93 grams. Tran Van Anh must be responsible for the act of buying and selling 0.86 grams of drugs.

At the witness stand, the defendants all admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment. The defendants stated that because of greed, they colluded with each other to sell drugs.

As the mastermind of the case, when asked by the court why he had been in prison many times but still reoffended, defendant Tien mumbled that because he did not have a stable job and wanted money to spend, he took the risk of drug trafficking even though he knew that his behavior violated the law.

The remaining defendants also admitted their crimes and expressed remorse. In this court appearance, the defendants asked for leniency from the law to have a chance to start their lives over.

Considering that in this case Phan The Tien committed the crime as the mastermind, the panel sentenced him to 17 years in prison. The two defendants Tran Manh Cuong and Tran Minh Ly committed the crime as active accomplices, so the court sentenced them to 16 years in prison.

Defendant Phan Xuan Son was sentenced to 15 years in prison; Defendant Le Quoc Hung was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Defendant Tran Van Anh was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison for "Illegal drug trafficking".

The sentences handed down to each defendant are not only the price for recklessness and disregard for the law, but also a wake-up call for those who are lost between the boundary of good and evil. Life always has a chance to start over, but if you stubbornly continue on the path of sin, a bitter end is inevitable.