Five death sentences handed down in Van Kinh Duong drug case
The People’s Court of HCM City on July 27 handed down five death sentences and four terms of life imprisonment to defendants involved in a major drug ring led by Van Kinh Duong.
HCM City (VNA) - The People’s Court of HCM City on July 27 handed downfive death sentences and four terms of life imprisonment to defendants involvedin a major drug ring led by Van Kinh Duong.
The case was thebiggest drug production crime brought to light in 2017.
Born in 1980, ringleaderDuong was sentenced to death on five charges of illegally producing andtrafficking drugs, cheating to appropriate assets, escaping from prison, andcounterfeiting the seals and documents of agencies and organisations.
The death penalty wasalso imposed on Nguyen Duc Ky Nam, who directed the production of the drugs, LeVan Mang, Pham Bao Quan, and Le Huong Giang, for their assistance to Duong.
Nguyen Ba Thanh,Nguyen Thu Huyen, Pham Thu Huyen, and Nguyen Dac Huy were sentenced to life behindbars.
Duong’s fiancée VuHoang Anh Ngoc received 16 years in prison for the illegal possession ofnarcotic substances.
The jury said thedefendants’ deeds were extremely dangerous for society.
According to theverdict, Duong was sentenced to five years in prison for robbery by the court inHanoi’s Hoan Kiem district in 2008. While serving his time, he was found onOctober 11 of the same year to have stored drugs, and was given an additional sevenyears.
While imprisonedin Thanh Hoa province, he and four other inmates escaped from prison inNovember 2010 and fled to HCM City, where he rented an apartment in a high-endresidential area using the name Tran Ngoc Hieu. In June 2016, he became acquaintedwith a person named Tom at a bar, where they agreed to produce methamphetamine.
Duong later orderedhis accomplices to rent a villa and buy chemicals to produce crystal meth. Thegang changed the location of their production constantly to avoid being detected,moving from HCM City to Nha Trang city and then to Dong Nai province.
Police in HCM Cityarrested the gang following a tip-off in 2017.
Investigations revealedthat Duong and his accomplices had produced 124 kg of drugs. About 84 kg were givento Tom and the remainder was used to make nearly 500,000 ecstasy tablets, whichweighed 120kg in total and were concealed in coffee bags.
Before their arrest,the ring had sold 18 kg in Hai Phong city./.
The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City opened on May 7 the first-instance trial on a drug trafficking and production ring, the biggest of its kind in Vietnam when being uncovered in 2017.
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Van Kinh Duong (Source: VNA) 
