Vietnam Sentences 11 to Death in Major Drug Trafficking Case

Vietnam sentences 11 people to death in a major drug trafficking case involving 227 defendants and a network linked to France.

A court in Ho Chi Minh City has sentenced 11 people to death in one of Vietnam’s largest drug trafficking cases, which involved 227 defendants and a trafficking network linked to France.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court handed down the verdicts on September 3 after nearly 20 days of trial and deliberation in the case, known as VN10.

The investigation began in March 2023 after four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants arriving from Paris were found carrying drugs hidden inside toothpaste tubes.

Authorities discovered more than 11 kilograms of drugs concealed in 157 of the toothpaste tubes. Vietnamese reporting said the shipment contained ketamine and MDMA.

The four flight attendants were later found to have been unaware that they were carrying drugs and were not prosecuted.

What initially appeared to be a single shipment eventually led investigators to a much larger trafficking operation.

According to Vietnamese authorities, the network moved synthetic drugs from France to Vietnam using several methods. Drugs were concealed in consumer products, including toothpaste tubes and boxes of dietary supplements, and were transported through cargo consolidation and international delivery services.

The network allegedly used encrypted messaging platforms, bank accounts registered in other people’s names and delivery services to coordinate the operation and distribute drugs after they arrived in Vietnam.

The investigation eventually expanded into 20 separate criminal cases involving 227 defendants.

Authorities said transactions linked to the wider network were worth nearly 29 trillion Vietnamese dong, equivalent to around $1.1 billion. That figure refers to the value of transactions associated with the network, not the street value of drugs seized.

The court sentenced 11 defendants to death for their roles in the trafficking operation.

Among them was Ha Danh Nam, identified by investigators as a key figure in the network. Authorities said he had arranged multiple shipments of synthetic drugs from France to Vietnam.

Nineteen other defendants received life sentences, according to Vietnamese reporting. The remaining defendants received sentences ranging from 18 months’ suspended imprisonment to 29 years, depending on their alleged roles and the offences for which they were convicted.

The trial involved more than 120 lawyers and was conducted partly by video link because of the unusually large number of defendants.

The verdict comes at an interesting point for Vietnam’s criminal justice system.

The government recently proposed removing the death penalty for six offences, including drug trafficking. However, those proposed changes have not yet taken effect, meaning the death penalty remains available for serious drug trafficking offences under the current law.

Vietnam has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and regularly imposes capital punishment in major trafficking cases.

The VN10 case stands out because of its size and the international nature of the network. What began with a single discovery at an airport ultimately led authorities to a much broader investigation involving hundreds of defendants and thousands of suspected participants across related cases.

Sources: Reuters and The Standard