Hundreds of marijuana plants found being grown in central Vietnam
Friday, August 14, 2015, 13:50 GMT+7
Police in Bao Loc, a city in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, have seized 175 marijuana plants that were found being grown in a house. Dao Danh Thang, head of the Drug Crime Investigation Agency of the Bao Loc Police Department, on Thursday said police officers had completed the seizure of these plants grown in a 100m2 conservatory. This was the first time that police had discovered the growing of marijuana in a house in the city’s central area, Thang added. The house, located on Ho Tung Mau Street, was rented by Le Trong Nghia, 44, hailing from Ho Chi Minh City, who lived there with a woman, Nguyen Thi Hang My, 27, of the central province of Quang Nam. Nghia organized the growing of the marijuana plants, while My took care of them, Thang said. Many of the confiscated plants had blossomed and the growers had used the marijuana flowers, police said. Nghia and My began growing marijuana in March 2015 by using six marijuana seeds that had been brought into Vietnam by their relatives from Canada.
Bao Loc police had previously detected cases in which marijuana was intercropped with coffee in mountainous fields by local people, but had never found marijuana grown in the city’s central area like in this case, Thang said. In January this year, police in the southernmost Vietnamese province of Ca Mau seized 957 marijuana plants grown on a plot of agricultural land in U Minh District. Police confiscated all the banned plants, which weighed more than 1.1 tons in total. Many similar cases have been discovered in different localities in Vietnam in recent years. On March 20, 2014 police officers in the northern province of Hai Phong nabbed Do Hai Nam, 38, after catching him in the act of dealing drugs and planting marijuana trees at his home in Le Chan District. On searching Nam’s house, officers seized 23 potted cannabis plants. Another case happened on January 7, 2013 when police in District 9, Ho Chi Minh City, found a 35-year-old man growing marijuana plants at his house to supply his consumption of the substance. On the terrace of the house, police officers saw 35 marijuana plants, each of which was about 1.5 meters tall.
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Under Article 192 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, “those who grow opium poppy, coca shrubs, marijuana or other plants which bear narcotic substance, have already been educated more than once, have already been given conditions to stabilize their lives and have already been administratively sanctioned for such acts but still commit them, shall be sentenced to between six months and three years of imprisonment.” As for those who commit the crime in an organized manner or are repeat offenders, they shall be sentenced to between three and seven years of imprisonment, according to the article. The offenders may also be subject to a fine of between one million and fifty million Vietnamese dong, the same article says. |
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