The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday sentenced a Taiwanese to death for trafficking 316 kilograms of heroin to the city from neighboring Binh Duong province last year.

Chen Tsen Wei, a 34-year-old Taiwanese man, was given the capital punishment after the court convicted him of smuggling massive amounts of heroin.

Chen and his accomplices were found to have entered Vietnam from Taiwan on several occasions since November 2018 to traffic narcotics, according to court documents.

At the beginning of 2019, a shipment of heroin belonging to the drug ring led by Chen was busted in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, with several arrests made by local police.

In February 2019, Chen and his accomplice Yen Yung Chu entered Vietnam and traveled to Binh Duong Province.

On March 27, the Taiwanese men were driven by a Vietnamese driver, Nguyen Dinh Hong, to a warehouse in Binh Duong to pick up a shipment and transfer it to Ho Chi Minh City.

After the pick-up, Chen and Yen drove the group’s van to Ho Chi Minh City while Hong led the way in a taxi.

At 8:30 pm on the same day, the gang of three was intercepted by municipal police officers at the An Suong intersection in District 12.

Chen and Yen tried to bribe the officers but wound up attempting to flee the scene on foot when their offer was rejected.

Chen was caught but Yen managed to escape and has been at large ever since.  

Officers have also identified Yu Chi Fu as a member of the drug racket.

The officers seized five cartons containing over 316 kilograms of heroin from Chen’s van. No drugs were found in their Binh Duong warehouse.

Yen and Yu will be prosecuted separately from Wei following their arrest.

At Thursday’s court, judges handed Chen the death penalty for “transporting narcotics.”

Under Vietnam’s Penal Code, anyone found guilty of transporting from 100 grams of heroin can face either 20 years to life behind bars or the death penalty.

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