30 defendants sentenced to die in largest drug trial ever in Vietnam

A provincial court in Vietnam Monday sentenced 30 of 89 defendants in drug trafficking rings to death sentences in the largest drug case ever in the country. Officials said the court matter was the largest drug trafficking case tried in Vietnam when taking into account the number of defendants, the number of death sentences handed down and the quantity of drugs involved, Tuoi Tre News reported. The trafficking case involved more than 4,400 bricks of heroin and hundreds of thousands of pills, the newspaper in Ho Chi Minh City said. Many of the 89 defendants -- including 27 women -- were indicted on charges that included counterfeiting documents of agencies and organizations, storing weapons, illegal trading, failing to report crimes and bribery. Thirteen of the 89 defendants received life sentences, nine got 20-year sentences, 27 were sentenced to two- to 18 years and the others were sentence to prison terms of less than two years, Tuoi Tre News said. The defendants also were ordered to turn over profits earned through their drug operations.