A Vietnamese court sentences 11 people to death and jails over 200 others in a major drug trafficking case involving flight attendants and toothpaste tubes from France.
HANOI: A Vietnam court on Thursday sentenced 11 people to death and jailed more than 200 others for trafficking illegal drugs in toothpaste tubes from France and related charges, state media said.
The one-party state in Southeast Asia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and courts routinely hand out death sentences for drug convictions.
The drugs smuggling operation involved Vietnamese flight attendants and other Vietnamese living in France who transported concealed synthetic drugs to Vietnam on flights or via global shipping services, state media said.
In one of the country’s largest mass convictions in a single drugs case, 227 people were sentenced, including 11 given the death penalty and 19 condemned to life in prison, according to the Tuoi Tre news site.
The ringleader, who was tried in absentia, was among those sentenced to death.
Other defendants were given sentences ranging from 18 months suspended to 29 years in prison on charges including trafficking and selling drugs and failure to report crimes.
Authorities uncovered the ring in early 2023 when customs officials at Ho Chi Minh City’s international airport found 11 kilograms (24 pounds) of MDMA and ketamine inside more than 150 toothpaste tubes, state media reported.
The tubes had been brought from France by four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants who had agreed to carry unspecified consumer goods for a fee of around $450, reports said.
But they were not prosecuted as investigators said there was no evidence they were aware they were carrying drugs.
The ringleader had organised several shipments of synthetic drugs hidden in toothpaste tubes and in boxes of dietary supplements.
He also recruited Vietnamese people studying or residing in France to collect the drugs and send them to Vietnam using international express delivery services.
The trial was conducted in person and online due to the number of defendants and featured more than 120 lawyers, Tuoi Tre said.
In 2024, Vietnam sentenced 27 people to death for trafficking more than 600 kilograms of drugs including heroin, ketamine and methamphetamine from neighbouring Cambodia.
Eleven people, including two police officers, were sentenced to death last year for trafficking drugs from Laos.
Vietnam has carried out death sentences by lethal injection since 2013, when it replaced execution by firing squad.
