Vietnam court sentences woman to death for drug trafficking

 

A Ho Chi Minh City court Monday sentenced a 30-year-old woman to death for trafficking heroin and other drugs. Le Thi Thu Thao, a native of the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre, appeared calm and at ease during the three-day trial including after the verdict was announced. Two key members of her 13-strong gang, Pham Thi Hien and her 25-year-old boyfriend Tran Ngoc Thinh, got life sentences. The others got between four and 20 years. Thao left her parents and six siblings for HCMC when she was 16 and got married. After buying heroin for her addicted husband, she realized the massive profits the drug could generate, and walked out on her husband to start a business she believed would make her rich quickly. Herself an addict, she used her good looks and charm to push drugs to customers at night clubs. In 2010 she met Hien at a casino in Cambodia where the latter was selling foreign currencies and persuaded her to find sources to supply heroin to her gang in HCMC. The law caught up with her in August 2010 when police officers in HCMC seized a consignment of 10,000 ecstasy tablets from Cambodia.