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Death penalty for Vietnamese American who hid drugs in underwear

Death penalty for Vietnamese American who hid drugs in underwear

Wednesday, April 23, 2014, 14:18 GMT+7

A Ho Chi Minh City court handed down a death sentence on Tuesday to a Vietnamese-American man who was caught hiding heroin in his underwear at the city’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport last year.

>> Vietnam indicts 3 Taiwanese for sending 229kg of heroin to Taiwan >> Death for Thai woman on drug charges>> 30 get death in largest-ever heroin trial in Vietnam Dinh Jason, 41, also known as Dinh Tien Hoang and having American nationality, received the capital punishment on charges of illegally transporting drugs at his trial opened by the HCMC People’s Court on April 22. He arrived at the airport on June 12 last year to take a flight to Australia, but he was arrested after customs officers and security-screening staff found three plastic packs of powder in white, weighing over 1 kilogram, stashed in his underwear.  The powder was then tested and confirmed to be heroin. At yesterday’s hearing, Dinh told the court that he engaged in transporting drugs to make money to repay a debt of US$20,000 he had accumulated from gambling. The prosecutor proposed that Dinh be sentenced to death, but his lawyer asked the court to give the man a commutation as he committed the offense only because of wanting to get money for debt settlement. The jury rejected the lawyer’s argument, saying the defendant’s act was very dangerous to society and he deserved the capital sentence. According to the indictment, Dinh Jason arrived at a casino in Las Vegas, the U.S., in January 2013 for gambling and then lost all the money he had brought with him.

Dinh later obtained a loan of $20,000 from a person, Maico, at the casino to continue gambling and then lost the entire sum again. As Dinh failed to pay back his loan, Maico suggested that Dinh accompany him on his return to Vietnam, where the Vietnamese American would work for Maico as a way to make up for the unpaid debt.

He agreed to the suggestion and he and Maico traveled to Vietnam in June 2013. Maico then asked Dinh to take the three above-mentioned bags of heroin to Australia via Tan Son Nhat, where the Vietnamese American was caught red-handed.

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