At the first instance trial that took place from February 27 to March 21, the 23 defendants were found guilty of trafficking 1,415 heroin cakes from 2012 to 2015.Nine of the defendants, namely Tran Duc Duy, Nguyen Trung Kien, Nguyen Van Hung, Nguyen Thanh Nam, Luong Xuan Vung, Chu Van Hau, Pham Van Manh, Ly Tien Dong and Trieu Van Duy were sentenced to death, nine others were given life sentences and four received 17-20 years in prison. A woman got 18 months behind bars for failure to denounce the crimes.Defendants Tran Duc Duy and Nguyen Van Hung were also imposed two-year and three-year imprisonments, respectively, for illegal possession of military weapons.The defendants were accused of making illicit profits worth more than VND13 billion and 708,000 Chinese yuan.
