Death penalty for 2 subjects in Hai Duong for trafficking large quantities of drugs

Defendants Do Tien Son (left) and Pham Van Long at the trial

Into the drug hotspot

At exactly 8:20 a.m. on February 22, the trial of Pham Van Long and Do Tien Son began. From early morning, many relatives of the defendants came to watch the trial. Security and order were strictly maintained.

According to the indictment, Long and Son were drug users and knew that Giang A Chu (aka Trang) in Ta De village, Long Luong commune, Van Ho district (Son La) was selling synthetic drugs. In early 2022, Long proposed to buy drugs from Chu to bring back to Hai Duong to sell for a profit, the two subjects agreed on a price of 300 million VND/kg of synthetic drugs.

On the morning of March 30, 2022, Long and his girlfriend traveled to Mai Chau district (Hoa Binh). Here, Long called Chu to ask to buy drugs, and Chu informed him that there were 12 kg of synthetic drugs. Long told Chu that he would ask Son to come and get the drugs and agreed to pay Chu by bank transfer, Chu agreed.

Representative of Hai Duong Provincial People's Procuracy read the indictment

At noon on March 31, 2022, Long drove his girlfriend to Chu's house to discuss the details of buying and selling drugs, while Long's girlfriend took Chu's child out. Because Son did not have a car, Long contacted to borrow a car for Son to go to Son La to get drugs.

From March 30-31, 2022, Long transferred 1 billion VND twice to the account of Do Danh Phong (born in 1986, residing in To Mua commune, Mai Chau district, Hoa Binh). Long also borrowed and asked his friend Luu Van Hoi (born in 1995, residing in Binh Duong commune, Gia Binh district, Bac Ninh) to transfer 700 million VND to Phong's account so that Phong could transfer it to Chu.

At around 0:30 on April 1, 2022, Son went to Chu's house. There, Chu gave Son a black backpack. Son opened the backpack and found many green bags like tea bags. Son took the drugs, got in the car and went to Hai Duong.

When arriving at Gia Loc district, suspecting that the authorities were following him, Son stopped the car at the Hanoi - Hai Phong expressway, hid the backpack of drugs in the bushes inside the cemetery of Long Trang village, Hoang Dieu commune (Gia Loc), then got into the car to watch over the backpack of drugs.

Lawyer Tran Trung Kien, Hai Duong Provincial Bar Association, defended the defendant.

At 6:45 a.m. the same day, Son was inspected, discovered, caught red-handed by the Investigation Police Agency of Hai Duong Province Police, and confiscated 12 plastic bags, 5 blue bags, and 1 silver foil package containing drugs.

The conclusion of the examination was that 12 plastic bags contained 11,750.106 grams of ketamine; 880 methamphetamine pills contained in 5 blue bags weighed 84.089 grams; 10 opaque white tablets weighed 6.368 grams of MDMA.

Bow your head and admit your guilt.

During the interrogation, defendants Long and Son admitted that the contents of the indictment were objective and clear.

The presiding judge, Judge Tran Huu Hieu, asked the defendant Long why he asked Son to go to Son La to buy drugs. Long said that he was busy traveling with a friend in Hoa Binh, so he asked his friend Son to go and get them for him. Regarding the money from selling the drugs, Long said that he had agreed with Chu to buy 300 million VND/kg of synthetic drugs and then sold them for 350 million VND/kg to make a profit.

The jury sentenced Pham Van Long and Do Tien Son to death for illegal drug trafficking.

Before the deliberation, after the debaters had nothing further to say, the presiding judge announced the end of the debate. Long and Son were given the last word. Both defendants bowed their heads, hoping for a lighter sentence.

The jury found that the defendants’ actions were particularly dangerous to society. In this case, Long was the one who directly traded in the drugs and thus played the main role. Son was Long’s accomplice and acted as the perpetrator.

Relatives of Long and Son sadly said goodbye to the defendants.

Long was sentenced to 6 months in prison with a suspended sentence by the People's Court of Thanh Ha district for theft; sentenced to 42 months in prison by the People's Court of Hong Bang district for illegal drug trafficking; and sentenced to 48 months in prison by the People's Court of Le Chan district (both in Hai Phong city) for receiving property obtained through crime. Son has a good personal history.

The court sentenced Pham Van Long and Do Tien Son to death for the crime of illegal drug trafficking as prescribed in Point h, Clause 4, Article 251 of the Penal Code.

Regarding Giang A Chu, the Investigation Police Agency of Hai Duong Provincial Police separated the criminal case against Chu to continue investigating and clarifying.

TD