Vietnam sentences 11 to death for trafficking large amount of drug to China

A court in Vietnam's northern China-bordering Lang Son province on Tuesday sentenced 11 people to death for smuggling some 280.24 km of heroin from the country to China from 2013 to 2014.

The other two defendants got life sentences, reported local Bao Giao Thong (Transport News) online newspaper on Wednesday.

According to the indictment, the 19-member drug smuggling ring was responsible for trafficking heroin from Vietnam's northern provinces to China, to rake in profit of some 10 billion Vietnamese dong (448,430 U.S. dollars) during the two-year period.

In December 2014, Vietnamese police arrested the ring and seized large quantities of illegal drugs.

Of the 19 ring members, as many as 13 were brought to trial, four have remained at large, one was dead before the trial began while the last member, a Chinese national, has been sent back to China.

Earlier in 2014, in what was one of Vietnam's largest narcotic cases, a court in Vietnam's capital Hanoi sentenced 29 people to death for trafficking more than 12 tons of heroin from Laos into Vietnam and China.

According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine will face death penalty.

The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death. Endit