A high-level court in Ho Chi Minh City has upheld the 20-year prison term for a former ride-hailing driver who was caught red-handed transporting narcotics.

The Ho Chi Minh City High People’s Court on Wednesday opened the second trial against Le Dai Long, 23, who hails from the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.

According to the indictment, Long worked as a motorbike driver for a ride-hailing app and became acquainted with two men named Duy Anh and Thinh.

Anh and Thinh offered to pay Long VND200,000-500,000 (US$9-22) each time he transported drugs to their customers.

Long agreed and was contacted by Thinh on September 23, 2019 and asked to transport narcotics from an unidentified man in Tan Binh District to Tran Ngoc Duc, 26, one of Thinh’s buyers.

Long was unaware how Duc made his payment to Thinh.

The following day, Long was asked to take some drugs from Anh and deliver them to Duc.

At around 10:30 am that day, police in District 7 raided Duc’s tenanted house and found more than 67 grams of ketamine and 194 grams of MDMA.

Duc claimed he had purchased the stimulant from Thinh and had plans to resell it to other buyers.

Officers expanded their investigation and caught Long red-handed transporting 199 pills of ecstasy weighing over 74.5 grams later the same day.

Both Long and Duc were sentenced to 20 years behind bars for the illegal trade of narcotics during a trial on July 2.

Long then appealed the sentence, requesting that his penalty be commuted. 

The court rejected his appeal and upheld his 20-year jail term.

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