A Vietnamese court yesterday sentenced 11 people to death and 19 to life imprisonment in one of the country’s largest ever drug trafficking cases.
The case dates back to March 2023, when four flight attendants for Vietnam Airlines were caught carrying narcotics hidden in toothpaste tubes at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport, after arriving on Flight VN10 from Paris. The tubes contained more than 2.9 kilograms of ketamine and 8.3 kilograms of MDMA.
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court yesterday sentenced 11 people to death for illegal drug trafficking in connection with the case. This included the alleged ringleader Ha Danh Nam, 52, from Nghe An province, who remains on the run and is one of four defendants being tried in absentia. All 11 were also fined between 50 and 100 million dong ($1,916 and $3,832) each.
Prosecutors allege that Nam “organized the transportation of drugs from France to Vietnam by air and through international express delivery services,” disguised as consumer goods from France into Vietnam, according to the state media outlet VnExpress. They said that drugs “were concealed in toothpaste, dietary supplements, confectionery, and other consumer goods.”
