Vietnamese police are urging charges be filed against 14 people for allegedly trafficking 280 kg of heroin to China on 22 different occasions, earning more than VND10 billion (US$450,000).

Investigators from the Ministry of Public Security submitted a report to the prosecutor’s office on April 3, naming the suspects led by Chu Van Vien, 33.

The ring members, aged between 25 and 40, carried the drugs from Son La Province on the Laos border.

Police caught two members of the gang in Hanoi and the neighboring Hoa Binh Province in December 2014 with around 15 kg of heroin.

They told the police they were carrying the drugs for a Chinese woman and Chu Dinh Tuyen, Vien’s brother who acted as his assistant after quitting his job as a vendor selling agriculture produce across the border.

Vietnam has some of the world’s toughest drug laws. The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is punishable by death.

Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine also face the death penalty.

Source: VOV/TN