Laotian drug mule who was paid mere $42 gets death sentence
A court in the central Ha Tinh Province has sentenced a Laotian man to death for transporting one kilogram of ketamine and 7,000 amphetamine pills into Vietnam.
It found Yer Vang, 28, guilty of “illegal transportation of narcotic substances.”
Ha Tinh border guards and customs checked a car Yer was driving while he was completing procedures to enter Vietnam at the Cau Treo International Border Gate in Huong Son District on August 16, 2022.
They found the back seats of the car, which carried a Lao number plate, having signs of being modified.
After removing the cover, they found the drugs hidden beneath, some covered by bags of dried tea leaves.
The drugs would have been worth around VND1 billion (US$41,740) on the market.
Yer said a stranger had hired him in Laos to carry the drugs and deliver them to a person in Nghe An Province next to Ha Tinh and was paid VND1 million.
He removed the foam from the car seats and hid the drugs there.
Vietnam is a key trafficking hub for narcotics despite having some of the world’s toughest drug laws.
Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of meth face the death penalty.
The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death.
By Duc Hung – VnExpress.net – February 17, 2023