Two defendants have been sentenced to death for drug-related offenses in two separate cases in the north-central Vietnamese provinces of Ha Tinh and Nghe An.

The Ha Tinh People’s Court on Tuesday imposed the death penalty upon Phan Van Dung, 23, for the illegal trade of narcotics.

Dung was also condemned to 18 years in prison for bribery.

He was previously wanted by police officers for robbery, according to court documents.

He was arrested while hiding at an apartment in Hanoi on June 25, 2019.

Officers also found nearly four kilograms of crystal meth in his bedroom.

As he was transported back to Ha Tinh Province, Dung repeatedly offered bribery to police officers in order to get away with his crime.

Despite warnings, the man had someone transfer VND3 billion (US$130,000) to an investigator of the province's Ky Anh Town on July 1 the same year.

The investigator reported the bribery and then handed over the kickback to the Ha Tinh Department of Public Security.

In related news, the People’s Court in Nghe An Province on Tuesday sentenced 51-year-old Nguyen Khac Trung to death for the illegal trade of drugs.

In September 2020, Trung traveled to neighboring Ha Tinh Province and met a woman named V., who said she wanted to buy three bricks of heroin and 50 packs of methamphetamine at VND700 million ($30,300).

V. promised to pay Trung VND100 million ($4,300) when the job was done.

Trung took V.’s money and purchased the drugs from a Laotian man at VND400 million ($17,300) in Que Phong District, Nghe An.

On September 30, he was caught red-handed transporting the stimulant to V. on an automobile. The confiscated drugs weighed more than two kilograms.

Trung had been convicted of illicit drug trade twice in 2003 and 2012, and was sentenced to 11 and 10 years in prison, respectively.

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