Wife "follows" husband to jail for trafficking "white" goods

On April 18, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Vi Thi Trang (born 1994), residing in Hop Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, for the crime of illegal drug trafficking.

Vi Thi Trang’s husband, Ho Ba Nam, is currently serving a sentence for illegal possession of drugs. With her husband in prison, Trang is raising four small children on her own. However, this subject has not worked hard to raise her children, but instead has followed in her husband’s footsteps.

Defendant Vi Thi Trang. Photo: Tran Vu

In November 2018, Vi Thi Trang met a man named Vinh (Quynh Luu district) and asked: "Do you know anyone who sells drugs?" This person then introduced Trang to a subject in Anh Son district. Once she had the phone number, Trang proactively contacted him and asked to buy drugs. At a coffee shop in Dien Chau district, the two sides agreed on the price and method of buying and selling "goods".

On the afternoon of November 19, 2018, Trang contacted Hoang, offering to buy 30 million VND worth of drugs. Hoang agreed and promised to deliver the goods the next day to an area in Do Luong town.

As scheduled, on November 20, Trang brought money to the appointed location and received drugs from a man named Hoang. Trang hid the drugs in her sun jacket and went home. However, when Vi Thi Trang went to Hop Thanh commune, she was caught red-handed by the authorities, and the evidence seized was 37.965 grams of heroin.

In court, the defendant stated that due to difficult circumstances and having to raise a small child, he had the idea of ​​buying drugs to resell to addicts.

The panel of judges determined that the defendant’s actions were dangerous to society, disregarding the law to traffic drugs. The defendant’s first offense and her honest confession were mitigating circumstances. Considering the case as a whole, the panel sentenced Vi Thi Trang to 12 years in prison for the crime of illegal drug trafficking.