2 Chinese men smuggling drugs from HCMC to Philippines get death

Wu He Shan, 59, and Huang Zai Wen, 55, were found guilty of “illegal transport of narcotic substances” at their trial Wednesday.

Three Vietnamese, Thao No Pao, 48, Ly A Vu, 35, and Thao A Do, 40, of the northern Dien Bien Province, were also handed death sentences.

According to the jury, the five were “dangerous to society” and should be “eliminated.”

They belong to a major drug ring operating in the region, and their arrest was possible due to cooperation between Vietnamese and Philippine police.

The case is not yet closed in Vietnam since the police are still searching for five others working for the gang.

More than a decade after coming to Vietnam to do business, Wu established a business in HCMC in 2012 to sell toys and garments.

In early 2018 Wu met Huang through a Chinese man identified only as A Hung and asked him to come to HCMC to join his business.

Later that year A Hung persuaded Wu to buy 20 tons of plastic beads and export them to the Philippines. In early 2019 he told Wu to buy 2.4 tons of beads but this time to conceal 12 bags of drugs and ship them to the Philippines.

But Philippine authorities seized the bags at Manila Port and found over 276 kg of drugs.

Just before that the HCMC police had arrested Pao, Vu and Do after catching them red-handed with around 300 kg of drugs. They were transporting them to Huang and Wu in the city’s Binh Tan District.

Wu claimed in court he was innocent and did not even know that the Philippine consignment contained drugs until the police arrested Huang and the others.

But prosecutors said there was enough evidence to conclude that Wu, Huang and their Vietnamese accomplices had sought to smuggle drugs from HCMC to the Philippines.

Those found possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine face death.