Drug lord Oanh Ha and 26 underlings sentenced to death

On the afternoon of December 27, Ms. Vu Hoang Oanh, 67 years old, from Hai Phong, was sentenced to death by the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City for the crime of illegal drug trafficking.;forced to pay a fine of 200 million dong.

26 of Ms. Oanh's juniors (including Nguyen Van Nam, Nguyen Anh Bao Quoc, Luong Thi Thu Huyen...) were also sentenced to death for one of the crimes of buying, selling, transporting, and illegally possessing drugs.

Six other defendants were found guilty of one of the above crimes, and the remaining two were sentenced to 20 years in prison. They were required to return all of their illegal profits, amounting to tens of billions of dong, to the state treasury.

This is the case with the largest number of people sentenced to death in the past 10 years.

According to the Trial Panel, in this case, in addition to Oanh and 4 accomplices who did not plead guilty, the remaining defendants all admitted to the acts as charged in the indictment. The defendants' statements, together with the collected documents and evidence, have a basis to determine that from 2019-2022, Vu Hoang Oanh directed a drug trafficking ring from Cambodia for consumption in Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Nam Dinh, Hanoi and neighboring provinces.

Initially, Oanh hired Nguyen Van Nam, 34 years old, from Hai Phong, to transport a total of 34 heroin cakes (nearly 13 kg) and then transported them through a small-scale route near Tho Mo border gate, An Giang, to Ho Chi Minh City to deliver to Oanh's customers. Later, in Ho Chi Minh City, Oanh hired Nguyen Anh Bao Quoc to receive drugs from other links, or directly receive old car gearboxes with drugs hidden inside to disassemble, take out the drugs, hide them and deliver them to Nam and other customers.

In total, the defendants stated that they had successfully transported 129 car gearboxes from Cambodia, each of which contained approximately 50 kg of drugs (a total of more than 6.4 tons). However, these statements did not specify the time, quantity, or type of drugs delivered. Therefore, within the scope of the case brought to trial, the prosecution only prosecuted the defendants for the acts of buying, selling, transporting, and storing 626 kg of drugs.

The court assessed that this was a particularly serious case of illegal transportation, trading, and possession of narcotics, transnational, and therefore required strict handling. In this case, Oanh was the mastermind behind the particularly large-scale drug trafficking ring. Defendant Oanh was responsible for the 626 kg of narcotics that were evidence in the case. Because Oanh did not confess to her actions, there was no basis to determine the amount of illegal profits.

The defendants Nguyen Van Nam, Nguyen Anh Bao Quoc, Luong Thi Thu Huyen... were accomplices who actively assisted Oanh. Nam helped Ms. Oanh buy and sell 384 kg of various drugs, and was paid through her account, from 300 million VND to 500 million VND per shipment, depending on the amount of drugs. In total, Nam benefited from more than 15 billion VND.

Quoc was also one of the people who actively helped Oanh transport more than 174 kg of drugs. For each trip, Quoc was paid 30-50 million VND by the boss, a total of 9 times.

Luong Thi Thu Huyen (Nam's girlfriend) helped Oanh buy and sell more than 132 kg of various drugs, illegally profiting 933 million VND.

Other defendants committed crimes with the amount of drugs stated in the indictment, some defendants were considered by the court to partially reduce the amount of drugs accused of committing the crime.

In court, defendant Oanh did not admit to the crime. However, the defendant's testimony was not accepted. "In addition to defendant Quoc's testimony, there were also Nam, other defendants and defendants in the previous case. Therefore, the prosecution and trial were not unjust," the verdict stated.

Similarly, some other defendants also did not admit their actions or changed their statements, but the court determined that there was no basis for acceptance.

"The defendants committed organized crimes twice or more, and had previous convictions for particularly serious and very serious crimes. When sentencing, the court noted that the defendants had certain mitigating circumstances, but the amount of drugs used was particularly large, so it was not possible to consider reducing the sentence," the Trial Panel stated.

The court acknowledged the defendant Nguyen Van Nam’s active cooperation, honest confession, and contribution in helping the investigation agency solve the case. However, the defendant committed the crime with an especially large amount of drugs, so the sentence could not be reduced.

Regarding the defendant Luong Thi Thu Huyen, the court held that the defendant was pregnant at the time of the crime and that the child died after birth. However, the defendant then committed a crime with an especially large amount of drugs, so the leniency policy could not be applied.

Ms. Oanh had 7 previous convictions and was the older sister of Dung "Ha" (a gangster boss in Hai Phong who was shot dead by Nam Cam in Ho Chi Minh City). She was arrested in a drug case in 2002. Because she contributed a lot to helping the police solve the case, she received a light sentence and completed her prison term after only 7 years.

In 2011 and 2015, she was sentenced to prison twice for gambling-related crimes. In May 2018, the Drug Crime Investigation Police Department (C04, Ministry of Public Security) dismantled a drug ring led by Ms. Oanh, arresting many of her followers, but the boss escaped. The verdict determined that during the time she was internationally wanted, Ms. Oanh was running this drug ring.