Naïve students are cheated to go on free foreign trips with tips of around US$1,000 to carry drugs into Vietnam.

However, they are told that they carry clothes and sandals, which are well disguised in suitcases to cover the banned substance. Drugs are often kept between layers of plastic in the back of the suitcases.

After Ha Duy discovered that she was tricked into carrying drugs into Vietnam and threatened to be reported to police, she was assured that she would be free from the drug trafficking ring if she carried it home for the last time.

However, on returning to Vietnam, Duy was threatened again by Francis, one of the members of the ring.

“You have no other choice but to carry it to Cambodia,” Francis told Duy. “Otherwise, I cannot assure the safety of your sister.” It was Duy who introduced her sister to Francis to carry clothes into Vietnam for a well paid income.

Duy had to accept the instructions in exchange for her sister’s safety.

While Duy realized that she was joining an international criminal ring, her sister Ha Tien was still innocent and going on a trip to ‘carry clothes’ then.

At Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Tien’s suitcase was found containing 4kg of drugs. Just a third of a kilogram of drugs is enough to be sentenced to death in Vietnam.

“I was very fearful but I thought that I was hired and didn’t even know it was drugs,” said Tien. “So I thought I would be released to go to school after the police caught the organizers.”

In Cambodia, the older sister Duy was instructed by Francis to cancel her phone number and told she would be given another one since Tien was arrested.

It was the last time Duy contacted Francis.

Duy called home and asked her father to report the whole story to Vietnamese police.

Returning back to Vietnam, Duy surrendered to police and reported the whole case, in hope of catching Francis and other organizers. However, the plan was unsuccessful, as Francis escaped and the sisters were forced to take charge of carrying the drugs.

After investigation, the sisters were taken to a court where the older Duy was sentenced to death and Tien 20 years in prison. In another court, Duy was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Odd trips

A university freshman, Huynh Ngoc Minh Xuan, was similarly cheated to transport clothes from India into Vietnam for a salary of $80 a day.

Xuan also introduced his brother Sang to join the job.

In a trip to New Delhi, both brothers were accessed by a foreign man who introduced himself Kevin. Kevin seized their passports and asked them to stay in their hotel room.

They stayed for four days until Kevin returned with a big suitcase.

Kevin asked the brothers to load their luggage into the new suitcase and threw away theirs. Feeling suspicious, the brothers carefully checked the suitcase but found nothing. They did not realize that drugs were kept between the layers on the bottom side.

Xuan was arrested at the border checkpoint in northern Vietnam’s province of Quang Ninh with 2.5kg of drugs in his suitcase.

Sang escaped but later surrendered to police and reported his story.

However, no organizer of the ring was nabbed by police, except Xuan being caught red handed for trafficking in drugs.

Xuan was sentenced to death and later given an amnesty by the State President to life imprisonment.

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