Boss Oanh Ha and 27 underlings proposed to be sentenced to death

On December 26, Ms. Oanh, 67 years old, from Hai Phong, was proposed by the representative of the People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City to receive the highest sentence for the crime of illegal drug trafficking.;forced to pay a fine of 200 million dong.

In addition to Ms. Oanh, 27 accomplices (including Nguyen Van Nam, Nguyen Anh Bao Quoc; Luong Thi Thu Huyen...) were also proposed to be sentenced to death for one of the crimes of illegally buying, selling, transporting, and storing drugs..These defendants must pay fines from 30 million to 200 million VND.

Prosecuted for one of the above crimes, 5 other defendants were proposed to be sentenced to life in prison, the remaining 2 defendants were proposed by the Procuracy to be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

This is the case with the largest number of people proposed for the death penalty ever.

According to the representative of the Procuracy, the case committed by Ms. Oanh and her accomplices was of a particularly serious and transnational nature, with Vietnamese defendants living abroad colluding with people in the country. The defendants’ criminal acts took place over a long period of time with many participants. The amount of drugs involved was particularly large.

At court, defendant Oanh stated that she did not accept the decision to prosecute, did not illegally buy and sell drugs, and did not know the other defendants. However, the representative of the Procuracy said that her statement was baseless, and affirmed that the indictment was correct in terms of the person and the crime, and there was no injustice.

During the time of her international arrest warrant, Ms. Oanh continued to recruit many gangsters to form a network to transport illegal substances from the Golden Triangle area to Vietnam. From 2019 to 2022, she organized and directed a network to transport and illegally trade drugs from Cambodia for consumption in Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Nam Dinh, Hanoi and neighboring provinces.

The case file shows that the defendants confessed to having successfully transported 129 car gearboxes from Cambodia, each of which contained about 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 agency only prosecuted the defendants for the acts of buying, selling, transporting, and storing 626 kg of drugs. Ms. Oanh must bear criminal responsibility for all of these drugs.

In the case, there were also a number of other defendants who did not admit to committing the crime, but the Procuracy also said that "there was no basis to accept".

Regarding Nguyen Van Nam's confession, the representative of the Procuracy based on the case file and the testimony in court, reviewed the amount of drugs Nam bought and sold according to the principle in favor of the defendant - a total of 215 kg instead of 384 kg as in the indictment.

Luong Thi Thu Huyen (Nam's girlfriend) bought and sold more than 132 kg of various drugs. In court, defendant Huyen claimed to have a small child, but the Procuracy stated that "it is not Huyen and Nam's child" - meaning that the mitigating circumstance of "committing the crime while pregnant" was not applied to the defendant.

As one of Oanh’s accomplices, Nguyen Anh Bao Quoc was assigned to pick up used car gearboxes containing drugs and bring them to a warehouse in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City, then deliver them to customers. In total, Quoc transported about 9 times with more than 174 kg of drugs. For each successful delivery, Quoc was paid 30-50 million VND by Ms. Oanh.

The trial continued with the defense of the lawyers and the defendants.