23-6-2023 (HANOI) Three Taiwanese men have been sentenced to death by a Vietnamese court for importing 479 kilograms of drugs into the country. The drug smuggling operation took place from January to May 2021 and involved the transport of narcotics in a car from a ride-hailing service. The men left the drugs in the car whilst going out to dinner and the driver became suspicious, alerting the police. Subsequent investigations found drugs at the men’s apartment and inside warehouses in the Hanoi area.
According to Vietnamese news website VnExpress, two of the condemned men requested leniency from the court on the basis that the drugs never entered the market. However, the three men all pleaded guilty to the smuggling charges. The men were identified as Kuo (郭), 33, Yeh (葉), 26, and Huang (黃), 25.
Kuo and Yeh pleaded with the judge to spare them the death penalty and give them a chance to reform themselves. Meanwhile, Huang reportedly acted on an invitation from friends to travel overland into Vietnam from Cambodia in November 2020 before beginning to sell drugs. Huang recruited Kuo and Yeh to distribute the drugs and move some to China.
The severity of the sentence highlights the Vietnamese government’s tough stance on drug trafficking, which is punishable by death.
