Australian woman sentenced to death for leading cross-border drug ring

A HCMC court Monday sentenced a Vietnamese Australian woman to death for running a drug trafficking operation between Cambodia and neighboring Vietnam.

Lam Kim Phung, 55, was arrested in late 2016 and identified as the leader of a gang that trafficked heroin and methamphetamine from Cambodia into Ho Chi Minh City.

She was charged with "illegal trading of narcotic substances." 3 of her henchmen, including Le Quang Cuong, Nguyen Duy Thach Thao and Tran Quynh Linh, got death sentences for the same charge at the trial court.

3 others were given life sentences while four, including Phung’s brother, also a Vietnamese Australian citizen, were jailed between 3 years and 6 months to 20 years in connection with the drug ring.

According to the indictment, Phung returned to Vietnam from Australia in 2005 and run restaurant and casino businesses in Cambodia. Due to business losses, she came up with idea of trafficking drugs.

From July 2016, Phung bought drugs from Cambodia and hired her accomplices to deliver them from Tay Ninh, Dong Thap and An Giang border gates in southern Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City.

The court heard that she had sold a total of 5.5 kilograms (12lb) of methamphetamine at the price of VND380 million ($16,370) per kilogram and 16.5 grams of heroin worth VND1.1 billion ($47,400) to Thao.

On November 28, 2016, police raided a house on To Hien Thanh Street in District 10 and arrested Thao and Phung’s accomplices while they were doing a transaction. Officers seized a plastic nylon containing 3 kg of meth. Upon searching Thao’s house, police also discovered nearly 2 kg of meth and heroin.

One day later, police detained Phung’s brother and his wife for illegally possessing heroin at a hotel on Pham Hong Thai Street in District 1.

Based on testimonies of the detained, police captured Phung and other accomplices in the drug ring.

Vietnam has 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 methamphetamine 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.

Although the laws are strictly enforced with capital punishment handed down regularly, drug running continues in border areas.

Source: vnexpress.net, Staff, July 30, 2019

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