ASEAN Beat | Security | Southeast Asia

Vietnam Sentences 11 to Death in Country’s Largest Ever Drug Trafficking Case

The case dates back to March 2023, when four flight attendants were ‌caught carrying narcotics hidden in toothpaste tubes on a flight from Paris to Ho Chi Minh City.

A Vietnamese court yesterday sentenced 11 people to death and 19 to life imprisonment in one of the country’s largest ever drug trafficking cases.

The case dates back to March 2023, when four flight attendants for Vietnam Airlines were ‌caught carrying narcotics hidden in toothpaste tubes at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport, after arriving on Flight VN10 from Paris. The tubes contained more than 2.9 kilograms of ketamine and 8.3 kilograms of MDMA.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court yesterday sentenced 11 people to death for illegal drug trafficking in connection with the case. This included the alleged ringleader Ha Danh Nam, 52, from Nghe An province, who remains on the run and is one of four defendants being tried in absentia. All 11 were also fined between 50 and 100 million dong ($1,916 and $3,832) each.

Prosecutors allege that Nam “organized the transportation of drugs from France to Vietnam by air and through international express delivery services,” disguised as consumer goods from France into Vietnam, according to the state media outlet VnExpress. They said that drugs “were concealed in toothpaste, dietary supplements, confectionery, and other consumer goods.”

Members of the network then used delivery services, encrypted messaging platforms such as Signal and Telegram, and bank accounts registered under other people’s names in order to distribute the drugs throughout Vietnam while evading detection.

Among the 19 defendants who received life terms was Hoang Sy Thang, 39, and his nephew-in-law Bui Van Anh, both also from Nghe An, who ran the network’s main storage point........

© The Diplomat