southern Vietnam sentenced two Taiwanese men to death for their involvement in an international heroin trafficking ring

court in southern Vietnam sentenced two Taiwanese men to death for their involvement in an international heroin trafficking ring, local media reported Friday. The People's Court of An Giang province, 190 kilometres south-west of Ho Chi Minh City, handed death sentences to Wei Chun Lung and Lee Chih Wen at a two-day trial that ended Thursday, the People's Police newspaper said.
The court also sentenced two Vietnamese accomplices, Phan Thi Cam Tu and Huynh Thi Anh, to 20 and 18 years in prison. According to the court's indictment, the ring was uncovered on May 20, 2007 when Anh was arrested en route from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City with 1.2 kilograms of heroin in her luggage. The province's anti-narcotics force later arrested other members and found more heroin at the Ho Chi Minh City hotel room of ring leader Lee, People's Police said. The group confessed to having brought 2.5 kilograms of heroin from Cambodia into Vietnam. They said the heroin was then illegally transported to Taiwan. Trafficking or transporting 600 grams or more of heroin is punishable by death in Vietnam. The communist country has sentenced at least 27 people to death this year, including 13 death sentences for drug crimes. Three of the death sentences were handed to foreigners.
In March, a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced an Australian woman of Vietnamese origin to death for smuggling heroin. Jasmine Luong, 34, was arrested in February last year when she was trying to bring 1.4 kilograms of heroin to Sydney.