Two Koreans sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug smuggling

Social Affairs

Published: 13 Nov. 2023, 17:32 Updated: 13 Nov. 2023, 17:53

Two Koreans sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug smuggling

Accused drug smuggling, left, attend a trial in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on Saturday (local time). A total of 18 offenders were handed the death penalty, including two Koreans, for smuggling over 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of drugs. [AFP/YONHAP]

Two Koreans were sentenced to death for trafficking drugs in Vietnam, a nation with some of the world's strictest drug laws.

Sixty-three-year-old Kim Soon-sik and 30-year-old Kang Seon-hok were among 18 people handed the death penalty for drug smuggling by the Family and Juvenile Court under the Ho Chi Minh People’s Court on Saturday (local time), according to Vietnamese media.

The 18 individuals were convicted of smuggling 216 kilograms (476 pounds) of illegal substances as part of a drug ring, reported VnExpress International.

The group of drug offenders included a 58-year-old Chinese man, Li Tian Guan, and the alleged mastermind of the drug ring, 30-year-old Vietnamese Le Ho Vu.

According to local media, the court handed out a record number of death penalties for a drug case in Vietnam. Three other members of the ring received life sentences.

Local police busted the drug traffickers after discovering illegal drugs hidden between slabs of granite at Cat Lai Port in Ho Chi Minh City in July 2020. The stacks of granite were ready to be exported to Korea.

Police confiscated around 40 bags of drugs, including methamphetamine.

Kim had run a business exporting granite to his home country since arriving in Vietnam in 2019. Reports said he had been jailed six times for violating the Immigration Act from 2000 to 2016.

According to the local press, Kim got involved in the scheme after meeting the Chinese national Li in early 2020. Li offered to pay 5 million won ($3,700) per kilogram of delivered drugs.

Kim accepted the offer and brought Kang, his former cellmate, into the scheme.

The drug offenders reportedly smuggled drugs from Cambodia, mainly to Ho Chi Minh City and some to Korea. Kim claimed in court that he was innocent, saying that he merely delivered the goods for Li without knowing they contained drugs.

The Vietnamese press reported Kim as a former cop in Korea who was expelled for violations. However, the Korean National Police Agency confirmed that Kim had never worked as a police officer in the country.

Vietnam has strict laws against drug crimes.

People busted for possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine can face the death penalty.

The same punishment applies to those who produce or distribute over 300 grams of methamphetamine or 100 grams of heroin.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based monitoring NGO, over 100 people have been sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug smuggling.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]