Vietnam sentences 11 to death in drugs case

A Vietnam court sentenced 11 people to death and jailed more than 200 others for trafficking illegal drugs hidden in toothpaste tubes from France and related charges, state media said on September 3.

The Tuoi Tre news site said 227 people were sentenced in one of Vietnam's largest mass convictions in a single drugs case. It said 11 were given the death penalty and 19 were sentenced to life in prison.

Other defendants received sentences ranging from 18 months suspended to 29 years in prison on charges including trafficking and selling drugs and failure to report crimes, state media said.

Authorities uncovered the ring in early 2023, when customs officials at Ho Chi Minh City's international airport found 11 kilograms of MDMA and ketamine inside more than 150 toothpaste tubes, state media reported.

The tubes had been brought from France by four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants who had agreed to carry unspecified consumer goods for a fee of about $450, according to state media reports. The flight attendants were not prosecuted because investigators said there was no evidence they knew they were carrying drugs.

State media said the ringleader, who was tried in absentia and sentenced to death, organised several shipments of synthetic drugs hidden in toothpaste tubes and boxes of dietary supplements. He also recruited Vietnamese people studying or living in France to collect the drugs and send them to Vietnam using international express delivery services.

Tuoi Tre said the trial was conducted in person and online because of the number of defendants and involved more than 120 lawyers.