Chinese man gets death for drug trafficking [in Vietnam]

51-year-old Zhang Zhi Hua at the trial in Tay Ninh Province yesterday (Photo: VNA)

Amodia Teresita Palacio at the Hanoi court on October 30 (Photo: TPO)

Thu, November 1, 2012
Tuoi Tre (Hanoi)

The Tay Ninh Province People’s Court yesterday sentenced a Chinese national to death for trafficking nearly 11 kgs of drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam eight months ago.

51-year-old Zhang Zhi Hua, who had been working at a currency exchange counter at NaGa Casino in Phnom Penh in Cambodia, was charged with “illegally transporting drugs,” the court said.

Hua was arrested at the Moc Bai border gate area in southeastern Tay Ninh Province on February 1 when a joint police team caught him carrying 20 plastic bags containing 120,000 tablets of pink methamphetamine in a taxi he hired to travel to Hoa Hung railway terminal in Ho Chi Minh City.

The drugs weighed 10.91 kg in total and were valued at more than US$1 million. This is the largest volume of drugs that has ever been seized at Moc Bai by anti-drug police in Tay Ninh.

In November 11, 2011, a Chinese man named Vy, who lived in Cambodia, hired Hua to take the drugs from Cambodia to China for US$10,000, but Hua refused due to low the payment amount.

After that, another man named Trinh, a friend of Vy’s, hired Hua to carry the drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam, and then on to China, later for US$40,000.

Hua agreed to the deal and was given instructions regarding the plan by Vy.

Accordingly, when arriving at Hoa Hung, Hua would take a train to Hanoi, where he would then phone Ha Bac so that Bac could pick him up and arrange for them to take a coach to Mong Cai town, Quang Ninh Province.

When arriving in Quang Ninh, Hua would call another man named Tieu Tu, who would then get Hua into China so he could deliver the drugs.

On January 30, under Vy’s instructions, Hoa called a Thai woman of Chinese origin to ask about the drugs, and at 9 pm a Cambodian came to the hotel where Hua was staying to give him the pills.

At 2 pm on February 1, Hoa took a taxi from Phnom Penh to Bavet, an international border gate in Cambodia’s Svay Rieng province, which borders Vietnam’s Tay Ninh province.

Later, as soon as he passed through the Moc Bai border gate to enter Vietnam, he was arrested.

On October 30, another foreigner in Vietnam, Amodia Teresita Palacio, a 61-year-old Filipino woman, was also sentenced to death by the Hanoi People's Court for the same charge.

Palacio was caught trafficking 5.4 kg of synthetic drugs into Vietnam at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi April 27. She had taken a flight on the Doha – Bangkok – Hanoi route.

According to the indictment, Ms. Palacio was hired by her Filipino friend, named Joselyn, to transport the contraband from Bamako, the capital of Mali, to Vietnam for US$3,000.