Vietnam sentences 11 heroin smugglers to death

The three women and eight men, sentenced to die by the People's Court of Hanoi after an 11-day trial that ended Thursday, belonged to the largest heroin trafficking ring ever discovered in Vietnam, according to Tran Quang Trong, head of the anti-narcotics force of Hanoi.

"This is the largest drug trafficking case ever, in terms of both the amount of heroin trafficked and the number of people sentenced to death," Trong said, adding that more accomplices of the ring have yet to be arrested.

The court sentenced seven other members of the ring to life imprisonment, three more to 20 years, and one to 18 months.

The ring distributed 437 kilograms of heroin in the period between 2002 and March 2006, according to court documents.

The ring was first discovered in December 2004, when one of its members was caught in China's Guangxi province carrying 5.2 kilograms of heroin in a suitcase she had brought from Vietnam.

Trafficking 600 grams or more of heroin is punishable by death in Vietnam.

Vietnam has sentenced at least 83 people to death since the beginning of this year, 52 of them for drug crimes.//DPA