The northern Quang Ninh Province People’s Court on Friday opened a trial for 89 defendants, including 27 women, of five transnational drug rings that transported and traded 32,000 bricks of heroin and hundreds of thousands of drug synthetic tablets.
Besides being charged with illegally transporting and trading in drugs, many of these defendants were also indicted for counterfeiting materials of agencies and organizations, storing weapons, illegal trading, not reporting crime, giving bribes and bribery brokerage.
The hearing is chaired by judge Nguyen Van Vuong and 41 lawyers are defending the defendants.
Twenty-two people whose rights and obligations are related to the case and 16 witnesses were present on the first day of trial.
According to the indictment, Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, a 54-year-old woman in northern Bac Giang Province, had led a ring that trafficked drugs from Laos into Vietnam since late 2006 to April 2012, when she arrested at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi.
From Ngoc’s testimonies, police later cracked down on four other transitional drug trafficking rings, seizing about 4,400 bricks of heroin, 20 cars, tens of guns, and a lor of fake documents and materials.
The police are hunting for 28 other defendants involved in these rings, the court said.
According to police in Quang Ninh, these rings had transported and traded in about 32,000 bricks of heroin, 120,000 synthetic drug tablets, 260,000 ecstasy synthetic tablets, and tens of kilograms of Methamphetamine.
The first ring was led by Sa Van Cau, 40, of Son La Province, who operated in Laos and is hunted for by police.
The second wing was headed by Nguyen Hung Dung, 35, and Song A Lau, 37, who are also of Son La.
The third ring was operated by Nguyen Thanh Tuan, 32, and his wife Nguyen Thanh Hien in Hanoi.
Meanwhile, the last ring, led by Nguyen Thi Hoan and Nguyen Ngoc Doan, specialized in transporting drugs from Vietnam to China for sale.
On the first day of trial, the court announced the 110-page indictment for the case. According to some lawyers, about 30 out of the 89 defendants can be sentenced to death. The hearing is expected to last until January 21, 2014.
Đăng ký: VietNam News
