Vietnam sentences 5 drug traffickers to death

A Vietnamese court gave death penalties to five local people involving in an inter-provincial drug trafficking ring, local newspaper New Hanoi reported Tuesday.

The People's Court of Hanoi capital city on Monday also passed life sentences to three drug traffickers, and imprisonment sentences of from 20 years downwards to six others.

Before being arrested in early 2004, the 14 people, mainly from Hanoi, and the two northern provinces of Hoa Binh and Son La traded 19 kg of heroin in the localities.

The 33-year-old ringleader alone, Nguyen Hoang Viet from Hanoi, traded 5.7 kg of heroin from April 2002 until his arrest in February 2004.

Under Vietnam's laws, anyone possessing, trading or trafficking heroin of 600 grams or above can be sentenced to death or life in prison.

Source: Xinhua