Van Kinh Duong at the trial in HCMC on May 7. The HCMC Procuracy proposes a sentence of death for Van Kinh Duong and several of his accomplices

The prosecutor said the 39-year-old mastermind has a long criminal record. In 2010, while imprisoned at Thanh Lam Prison in Thanh Hoa Province for asset misappropriations and the storage of drugs, Duong escaped confinement, the local media reported.

After his escape, he used fake identification cards under the names of Nguyen Cao Quy and Tran Ngoc Hieu to withdraw cash from banks and rent a house in HCMC, which was used as a location to distribute drugs.

In 2016, officials said Duong teamed up with Tom, who he met in Cambodia, to manufacture drugs to supply to smugglers.

From 2016 until when he was detained, Duong rented multiple houses in HCMC, Nha Trang and Dong Nai to be used as workshops to process drugs, with the support of his accomplices, including Le Van Mang, Pham Bao Quan and Nguyen Duc Ky Nam.

Later, Nam and Mang helped Duong distribute drugs in HCMC, Hanoi and Haiphong cities.

During the first-instance trial, which opened on May 7, Le Huong Giang, 31, declared that Duong told her to ship drugs to customers, though she claimed to not know that the shipments were illegal drugs.

However, Giang had initially made a declaration to the investigating agency that Duong, in fact, asked her to deliver drugs. In total, officials reported that she shipped six packages with drugs.

As such, defendant Giang must be held responsible for her selling illegal drugs as Duong’s accomplice.

Meanwhile, Duong’s lover, Vu Hoang Anh Ngoc, known as Ngoc Miu, declared to the investigation agency that she was aware of Duong’s accomplices storing drugs in her house.

The prosecutor asserted that Ngoc’s declarations in court that she did not know that Duong and his accomplices were storing drugs and ecstasy tablets were baseless.

The prosecutor said that the drug trafficking and production ring was the largest uncovered in Vietnam in 2017, and described the defendants’ violations as extremely serious.

Officials said the defendants sold thousands of ecstasy tablets, taking in over VND2 billion.

Such a large amount of drugs damaged the country and the public, the prosecutor said. As a result, it is necessary to impose the severest penalty against these defendants.

The prosecutor proposed a sentence of death for Van Kinh Duong, Le Van Mang, Pham Bao Quan, Nguyen Duc Ky Nam, Le Huong Giang and Nguyen Dac Huy, and life imprisonment for Nguyen Ba Thanh, Nguyen Thu Huyen and Pham Thu Huyen. A 20-year sentence was proposed for defendant Vu Hoang Anh Ngoc. SGT