A court in Vietnam has sentenced eleven people to death in one of the country’s largest drug trafficking cases.
They are part of a much larger group of 227 people accused in the investigation, with prison sentences ranging from 18 months to life behind bars.
The case first broke in March 2023. Four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants arriving in Ho Chi Minh City from Paris were caught carrying more than 10kg of illegal drugs hidden inside 157 toothpaste tubes. Authorities later determined that the flight attendants had unknowingly transported the substances, which included MDMA and ketamine, and they were not prosecuted.
Investigators traced the operation back to Ha Danh Nam, the alleged mastermind of the network. Local media reports state that Nam specifically targeted Vietnamese nationals living or studying in France to act as drug mules. To avoid detection, he hid the illegal substances inside everyday consumer goods like dietary supplements, laundry detergent, mouthwash, and coffee. He then arranged for people to carry them in their luggage or sent them via standard delivery services to Vietnam.
Prosecutors noted that this transnational network used encrypted messaging platforms and bank accounts registered under other people’s names to hide their tracks. The total value of transactions linked to this smuggling ring was nearly 29 trillion Vietnamese dong, or about $1.1 billion.
The court handed down penalties based on the seriousness of each person’s role. Alongside the eleven death sentences, around 20 others received life imprisonment for organizing, buying, and transporting the drugs.
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Vietnam remains one of the 54 countries that still uses the death penalty. The government does not publish the number of people on death row, treating it as a state secret, though human rights groups estimate more than 1,000 are currently awaiting execution.
However, the legal landscape in the country may be shifting. Last month, the Vietnamese government proposed abolishing the death penalty for six offenses, including drug trafficking. This follows a 2025 change in the criminal code that removed capital punishment for eight other crimes, a move that recently saved a high-profile banking tycoon from execution.
For now, the eleven defendants face the ultimate penalty. It marks a stark and final end to a billion-dollar smuggling operation that tried to hide in plain sight.
Promise Idoko is Junior Reporter working with moderncrux He covers global politics and international affairs. Based in Nigeria,
