5 death sentences, 1 life sentence for drug traffickers

The five defendants include: Nguyen Hong Phuoc (also known as So Em, 27 years old), Nguyen Van Tuan (25 years old), both residing in An Thanh commune, Ben Cau district, Tay Ninh province; Nguyen Duy Khanh (35 years old, residing in Thanh Phuoc commune, Go Dau district, Tay Ninh province); Vo Tan Phuong (39 years old, residing in Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City).

Defendant Phan Van Khanh (50 years old, residing in Loi Thuan commune, Ben Cau district, with a previous conviction for "Smuggling" foreign alcohol) was also sentenced by the Trial Council to 6 months in prison for "Transporting prohibited goods", the combined sentence for both crimes is death. Defendant Lam Gia Dat (25 years old, residing in Tien Thuan commune, Ben Cau district) was sentenced to life in prison for the same act of "Illegal transportation of narcotics".

According to the indictment, on the evening of August 1, 2022, at Trang Chua Bridge (on National Highway 22 in An Binh Quarter, An Tinh Ward, Trang Bang Town), the Drug Crime Investigation Police Department coordinated with professional units of Tay Ninh Provincial Police to inspect and catch red-handed a taxi 70E-000.56 driven by Khanh carrying Phuong while transporting two cardboard boxes containing a total of 20 nylon bags containing white solid crystals suspected to be drugs and 5 cartons of foreign cigarettes. The authorities drew up a record of the arrest of the offender red-handed.

According to the forensic conclusion of the Criminal Techniques Department of Tay Ninh Police, all the solid crystals caught red-handed were Ketamine drugs with a total mass of over 19.65 kg. The Investigation Police Agency, Provincial Police arrested and urgently searched the residences of 4 subjects including: Phuoc, Dat, Tuan, Khanh and seized some related assets.

Through investigation, it was determined that the defendant Phuoc often went to Cambodia to gamble and became acquainted with a man named Tuan (unknown background). This person introduced Phuoc and gave him the phone number of a Vietnamese man (unknown name and address) who was looking for someone to transport drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam and then to Ho Chi Minh City.

Phuoc then befriended this Vietnamese man via the social network Telegram and contacted him to agree to transport drugs to Vietnam for a fee of 18 million VND/kg. Phuoc then called defendant Nguyen Van Tuan, inviting him to join in transporting drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam for a fee of 9-10 million VND/kg; at the same time, he asked Tuan to invite more people to join.

At around 1:00 p.m. on July 26, 2022, Tuan called Khanh to meet for a drink at the Moc Bai international border gate. There, Tuan told Khanh about Phuoc hiring him to transport drugs for the above fee and Khanh agreed. Tuan and Khanh agreed that when they had drugs, they would notify and provide the phone number of the delivery person in Cambodia so that Khanh could directly contact them to receive and transport them to the border area and then find a way to transport them to Vietnam to deliver to Tuan.

On the afternoon of August 1, 2022, because he could not contact Khanh directly, Phuoc sent the phone number of a man in Cambodia to Tuan to give to Khanh to contact and receive the drugs himself. On the same day, Khanh rode a motorbike to Bavet market (Cambodia) to contact the above phone number and received a box of drugs packaged in a cardboard box. Khanh called Tuan to go to the container parking lot behind Moc Bai duty-free supermarket to watch the way for Khanh.

After seeing the Border Guard force at the time of the shift change, Khanh drove a motorbike to transport drugs through the checkpoint to enter Vietnam, arrived at the meeting point and handed them over to Tuan, then returned home. At this time, Phuoc, Phuong, Dat, and Khanh agreed to assign tasks to each person. Afterwards, at Voi Hamlet (An Thanh Commune, Ben Cau District), Tuan handed over the drugs to Phuoc's group.

Upon receiving the drugs, Phuoc directed Dat to go to Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City to wait for the police force so that Phuong and Khanh could transport the drugs. At around 7:30 p.m. on August 1, 2022, Khanh drove car 70E-000.56 to take Phuong to the meeting point to meet Phuoc. Khanh opened the trunk of the car for Phuong and Phuoc to put the drug box inside and then continued to drive Phuong and the drugs on National Highway 22 towards Ho Chi Minh City. Phuoc drove his motorbike right in front of Khanh's car.

On the way, Phuoc texted Khanh the phone number of the drug recipient and the delivery password "buy soc trang cake". When they arrived at Trang Chua bridge, Khanh was asked by the police to stop the car and open the door for inspection, but he refused. The police broke the car window and caught Khanh and Phuong red-handed.

At this time, Phuoc discovered that Khanh and Phuong were arrested, so he called Dat to park the car at Xuyen A Hospital, then hired a Grab car to go to Cu Chi Hospital to pick Phuoc up and take him to Tho Mo border gate (in Long An province) to find a way to escape to Cambodia. After that, both subjects were arrested.

The subjects confessed that on July 22, 2022, Phuoc received about 6 kg of drugs from Cambodia to transport into Vietnam and then hired Khanh to drive a taxi carrying Phuoc to transport the drugs to Nha Be area, Ho Chi Minh City to deliver to a woman (name unknown). Phuoc received 60 million VND as a salary and paid Khanh 5 million VND for the transportation.

On July 27, 2022, Khanh went to receive drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam and gave them to Tuan to transport to Phuoc. After that, Phuong and Dat were tasked with keeping watch for Phuoc and Khanh to transport 2 boxes of drugs to Ho Chi Minh City. Phuoc received 504 million VND in wages; paid Khanh 80 million VND, Tuan 40 million VND, Khanh 10 million VND, Phuong and Dat each 5 million VND. Phuoc alone benefited 364 million VND.

During the investigation, Phuong, Khanh, Tuan and Khanh confessed honestly. Phuoc and Dat initially admitted to their crimes, but later denied them.