Ha Minh Duc, 40, was an officer in the Long Bien District Police Drug Investigation Unit, and Nguyen Van Hung, 44, in the Duc Giang Ward police in Long Bien.

Nguyen Thi Kim Huong, 42, was sentenced to life imprisonment but seven of her associates also received the same death sentence as did Nguyen The Thanh, 33, and his younger brother Nguyen The Lap, 25.

All 11 receiving capital punishment were found guilty of “illegal drug trafficking.”

Last month Vietnam abolished the death penalty for eight crimes, including espionage, graft and attempting to overthrow the government, as well as transport of drugs. But drug trafficking remains a capital offense.

The court considered the operation an “especially egregious” case of large-scale drug trafficking, with the illegal drugs being transported over the Vietnam-Laos border in central Vietnam.

The criminal group operated secretly, using coded signals and transporting drugs by passenger buses to Long Bien bus station in Hanoi.

There, the officers, Hung and Duc, provided protection in various illegal ways, including using police vehicles to transport drugs and storing them at their homes.

Thanh was the mastermind behind the operation, and earned an estimated VND5 billion (US$190,800) from it before being caught.

Huong was the distributor, selling the drugs in Hanoi and Bac Ninh and earning over VND4 billion.

The others were active accomplices.

Nine of the twelve defendants had prior convictions to drug trafficking.

Thanh and three of his subordinates, including a 24-year-old, had previously been sentenced to death for other drug trafficking offenses.

Huong had been sentenced to life imprisonment for a previous drug trafficking offense by the Hanoi People’s Court in 2023.

At the hearing, the prosecution sought death for all 11, but not for Huong since she was a single mother with young children.

The drug trafficking scheme goes back to 2019 when Thanh brought 136.8 kg of drugs from Laos to Vietnam.

Former police officer Nguyen Van Hung (front row) and Nguyen Thi Kim Huong (second row, left) at a court in Hanoi, July 2, 2025. Photo by Read/Danh Lam

Huong claimed to have “very good relationships with the police,” which made Thanh confident about selling drugs to her for trafficking.

Thanh’s associates took delivery of the drugs on multiple occasions at the Cau Treo border gate in central Ha Tinh Province and brought them to an apartment in Hanoi, where the drugs were hidden including in a vacuum cleaner.

Hung, who was asked by Huong to help with the transport, drove a police vehicle to the apartment building and took the drugs to her rented house.

The next day she introduced him to her associates, saying, “This is the officer from Duc Giang Ward Police who transported the drugs for us.”

Later she asked to store the drugs in Hung’s garage for a while.

They were later sold by Huong and Duc.

Hung was charged with “assisting and covering up” for Huong and her associates in the trafficking of 37 kilograms of drugs and earning VND740 million.

As for Duc, Huong introduced him to her accomplices as “an officer from the Long Bien District Police drug enforcement team,” to boost their confidence in the trafficking operations.

In September 2019, after Huong informed him that a gang member had been arrested by the Long Bien District Police during a drug delivery, Duc reportedly reassured them, saying he has “experience” and that investigators would search all locations.

He then instructed Huong to “clean up all the drugs” hidden in the gang’s rented room.

The Procuracy determined that Duc helped Huong sell drugs in Hanoi but also personally traveled to Hue numerous times to strategize drug transactions with Thanh.

Several successful shipments occurred with Duc’s assistance.

Duc was found guilty of “assisting and covering up” for Huong in the illegal trade of 134.8 kg of drugs, earning VND1.3 billion in the bargain.

The two officers were suspended last year when the Supreme People’s Procuracy prosecuted them.