Wife and lover estranged, lonely man heard court sentence him to life in prison

Wasted all his fortune on drugs

On January 25, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Vu Chong Nenh (born 1971), residing in Muong Pet district, Xieng Khouang province, Lao PDR, for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking” and “Possession of military weapons”.

Vu Chong Nhenh was originally from Huoi Tu commune (Ky Son district). When he was less than 10 years old, he followed his relatives to migrate to Laos, so he has dual Vietnamese and Laotian citizenship. Nhenh married a local woman and gave birth to 4 children, both boys and girls. Although illiterate, thanks to his hard work, Nhenh was able to build up a decent amount of capital from his livestock, which helped him to raise his children to receive a good education.

Not knowing what the devil was doing, Nênh got into drugs. The buffaloes and cows just kept going straight into the opium pipes. When switching from opium to heroin, the money from selling a buffalo quickly evaporated as the long-time addict’s drug habit became more and more intense. Within a few short years, Nênh had burned his family’s entire herd of buffaloes into drugs.

The first wife could not bear the fact that the family property was gradually disappearing, so she began to ignore him and often blamed Nhenh. Having nothing left to sell, Nhenh went into drug trafficking.

Defendant Vu Chong Nhenh confessed his crime before the jury. Photo: Nhu Binh

According to documents from the Tuong Duong District Police, in 2007, due to his drug addiction, Nhenh found a source of goods and tried to cross the border back to Vietnam to set up a drug trading spot on Moi slope hill (Yen Na commune, Tuong Duong). When the Tuong Duong District Police destroyed and chased away this painful drug trading spot, Vu Chong Nhenh fled to Laos to hide for a while. However, he still secretly traveled between the two countries todrug trafficking, whereabouts appear and disappear.

In 2019, Nênh developed feelings for a woman named Bao in Luong Minh commune after crossing the border to sell drugs inland. Being blamed and nagged by his wife, combined with the convenience of buying and selling drugs, Nênh decided to "return home". Called "return home", but with the calculation of a cunning fox, Nênh only stayed on this side for a short time, sold all his goods, then jumped to the other side of the border to hide, then went back to Vietnam to start a new trading trip.

In early 2020, Nênh re-established a drug den in the Pu Lom slope area, Dua village (Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong). In addition to using drug addicts as couriers and lookouts, Nênh equipped himself with guns and bullets to deal with the authorities as well as competitors in the drug retail industry.

Of course, all of Nhenh's actions could not escape the anti-drug detectives of Tuong Duong District Police. Around midnight on April 21, 2020, Tuong Duong District Police raided the shack, controlled and arrested Vu Chong Nhenh, confiscated more than 530 grams of drugs, 1 military gun, and 3 bullets.

Price

The day he was arrested, his mistress was four months pregnant. Since entering the camp, she had not come to visit him. Counting the months and days, he was sure Bao had given birth, but he did not know whether it was a boy or a girl.

When mentioning his wife in the countryside, he just smiled bitterly, "She just wanted to kill me." Perhaps, Nênh knew what he had done, so he did not dare to blame his wife. At the trial, through an interpreter, Nênh confessed to bringing 70 million Lao kip to a hill in Muong Pet district (Xieng Khouang province, Laos) to buy 2 heroin cakes for 60 million, 20 packages of pink pheasant for 10 million kip. After buying the drugs, Nênh carried a gun across the border into Vietnam, organized retail sales on Pu Lom slope until he was arrested.

Should admit to equipping military guns to prevent being caught by anti-drug forcessurround and capture, but denied using a weapon to resist the police. This man hopes to receive leniency from the law so that he can have a chance to return to his wife and children, even though he is not sure if his relatives still need him.

“Are you afraid that your children will follow in your footsteps and go into drug trafficking over there?” I asked the interpreter to translate the question. Suddenly, Nhenh replied in Vietnamese: “There is no such thing. My children are working abroad in South Korea, and the economy is quite good.”

The trial ended with a life sentence for “Illegal drug trafficking” and 2 years in prison for “Illegal possession of military weapons”, meaning that the rest of his life would be spent in prison. His dream of returning home also ended after that sentence. He trudged out of the courtroom to return to prison. Behind him was not a single familiar face, and ahead were only endless days of gnawing at the price he had to pay behind prison bars...