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A Vietnamese court has sentenced 11 people to death and jailed more than 200 others for trafficking synthetic drugs concealed in toothpaste tubes from France, state media reported on Thursday.
Vietnam has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, with courts routinely imposing death sentences for serious drug offences.
The trafficking network involved Vietnamese flight attendants and other Vietnamese nationals living in France who helped transport concealed synthetic drugs to Vietnam through flights and international shipping services.
A total of 227 people were convicted in what Tuoi Tre described as one of the country’s largest mass trials involving a single drug case.
Eleven defendants received death sentences, while 19 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The alleged ringleader, who was tried in absentia, was among those sentenced to death.
Other defendants received prison terms ranging from 18 months suspended to 29 years for offences including drug trafficking, drug sales and failing to report crimes.
Authorities uncovered the operation in early 2023 after customs officials at Ho Chi Minh City’s international airport discovered 11 kilograms of MDMA and ketamine hidden inside more than 150 toothpaste tubes, state media reported.
The toothpaste tubes had been brought from France by four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants who said they had agreed to transport unspecified consumer goods for about $450.
The flight attendants were not prosecuted because investigators found no evidence that they knew the packages contained drugs.
According to investigators, the ringleader organised several shipments of synthetic drugs concealed in toothpaste tubes and boxes of dietary supplements. He also recruited Vietnamese nationals studying or living in France to collect the drugs and send them to Vietnam through international express delivery services.
Because of the large number of defendants, the trial was conducted both in person and online and involved more than 120 lawyers, Tuoi Tre reported.
Vietnam sentenced 27 people to death in 2024 for trafficking more than 600 kilograms of drugs, including heroin, ketamine and methamphetamine, from neighbouring Cambodia.
Last year, 11 people, including two police officers, were also sentenced to death for trafficking drugs from Laos.
Vietnam has carried out executions by lethal injection since 2013, when it replaced firing squads as its method of execution.
