Wife and lover estranged, lonely man heard court sentence him to life in prison
(Baonghean.vn) - Addicted to drugs and selling all his livestock, Nênh decided to return to his hometown to pursue his dream of getting rich with drugs. Forgetting his wife from his youth, Nênh "paired up" with a woman in the "capital" of drugs. On the day he received his life sentence, this man was lonely without any woman by his side.
Wasted all his fortune on drugs
On January 25, Nghe An Provincial People's Court 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 had four 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 allowed him to raise his children to receive a proper education.
Not knowing what the devil had done, Nênh got into drugs. The buffaloes and cows just kept going straight into the opium pipe. 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 kept disappearing one by one, so she became indifferent and often blamed Nhenh. When there was nothing left to sell, Nhenh went into drug trafficking.
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| 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 notorious 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 fell in love with a woman named Bao in Luong Minh commune after crossing the border to sell drugs. Because his wife had blamed and nagged him, and because it was convenient for drug trafficking, Nênh decided to "return home". Although he said "return home", with the calculation of a cunning fox, Nênh only stayed here 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 retail world of white goods.
Of course, all of Nhenh's actions could not escape the anti-drug detectives of Tuong Duong District Police. Near midnight on April 21, 2020, Tuong Duong District Police raided the shack, controlled and arrested Vu Chong Nhenh, confiscating more than 530 grams of drugs, 1 military gun, and 3 bullets.
Price
The day Nênh was arrested, his mistress was four months pregnant. Since entering the prison, she had not come to visit him. Counting the months and days, Nênh 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, and 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 forcescapture, 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 become drug dealers over there?” I asked him to translate the question. Nhenh surprisingly 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 Nênh’s life would be spent in prison. Nênh’s dream of returning home also ended after that sentence. Nênh 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…
