A court in Vietnam has sentenced 11 people to death and jailed more than 200 others in connection with a major transnational narcotics operation, according to state media reports.
A total of 227 people were convicted following an investigation into synthetic drugs smuggled from France into Vietnam hidden inside everyday consumer goods, including toothpaste tubes. The convictions mark one of the largest mass trials in the history of the Southeast Asian nation.
In addition to the 11 death sentences, 19 people were sentenced to life in prison. The remaining defendants received sentences ranging from an 18-month suspended sentence to 29 years in prison for offences including drug trafficking, selling narcotics, and failing to report crimes.
Because of the number of defendants, the court conducted the proceedings using a combination of in-person and online formats. More than 120 lawyers participated in the trial, according to the Tuoi Tre news outlet.
The operation involved Vietnamese nationals living in France and flight attendants who transported synthetic narcotics into Vietnam through commercial flights and international shipping channels.
Authorities uncovered the network in March 2023 at the international airport in Ho Chi Minh City, where customs officials found 11 km of MDMA and ketamine concealed inside 157 toothpaste tubes.
The tubes had been carried from Paris by four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants who had agreed to transport consumer goods for a fee of around US$450. Investigators concluded that the flight attendants did not know the packages contained drugs and decided not to prosecute them.
Investigators identified Ha Danh Nam as the mastermind behind the network. He organised shipments of synthetic drugs concealed in dietary supplements, laundry detergent, mouthwash, and coffee.
Nam recruited Vietnamese students and residents in France to work as couriers and used international express delivery services to send parcels directly to Vietnam. Prosecutors said members of the network also used encrypted messaging platforms and bank accounts registered under third-party names to conceal their financial transactions.
Among those sentenced to death was Nam, who was tried in absentia.
Vietnam has some of the strictest narcotics laws in the world and routinely imposes severe penalties for major drug offences. The country has used lethal injection for executions since 2013, when the method replaced execution by firing squad.
The case follows several other major narcotics prosecutions in Vietnam. In 2024, courts sentenced 27 people to death for trafficking more than 600 km of illicit substances, including heroin, ketamine, and methamphetamine, from neighbouring Cambodia.
Last year, 11 people, including two former police officers, were sentenced to death for their roles in trafficking illicit substances from Laos.
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