Foreigner sentenced to life for heroin trafficking

Photo: Nguoi Lao Dong

TUOI TRE

Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court Wednesday sentenced Nigerian Ben Blessed to life imprisonment for smuggling over 1 kilogram of heroin from Vietnam to China.

Three of his accomplices were also arrested and given sentences. Anyanwu Chima Stanley was sentenced to 30 years in jail for illegal possession and transportation of drugs; Ozogu John and Pham Thi Thanh Trang each received a 20-year sentence for illegally transporting drugs.

They were also fined VND20million (US$1000) to VND50million (US$2500) each.

Ben, 31, came to Vietnam in 2008 as a tourist and stayed on in HCMC illegally after his visa expired. He and John hired Trang and some Vietnamese girls to smuggle drugs from foreign countries into Vietnam and then deliver the drugs to China.

They had successfully transported the drugs to China many times until July 2009 when Trang was seized while carrying 692.9 grams of heroin to China.

The heroin was earlier smuggled by Trang, paid US$700 for the mule job, from Pakistan into Vietnam. The drugs were then put into small nylon bags and hidden in shoe soles before being smuggled to China.

Following Trang’s confession, the police arrested Ben, John and Chima and found the heroin hidden in T-shirt buttons and shoe soles at Ben’s house.

At the court hearing, the Nigerian men pleaded not guilty, claiming their earlier confessions were obtained by police coercion and misunderstanding caused by the language barrier.
Still, the judges rejected their explanations.

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HCMC taxi overcharges foreigners by 40 times



A Mai Linh taxi (for illustration purposes only)


TUOITRENEWS

Three Malaysians have fallen victim to a Mai Linh taxi scam in Ho Chi Minh City, paying VND6 million (US$300) for a ride that should have been VND150,000 (US$7.50).

One of the customers, Nasiniya Mohd Taib, said she and two friends took a taxi with a Mai Linh Taxi Group logo and the phone number 0839620620 on the side of the car from Ben Thanh Market to Tan Son Nhat Airport on the morning of May 10.

Upon arriving at the airport, the taxi driver charged them VND4 million (US$200) and 300 Malaysian ringgit (US$100), overcharging them by VND5.8 million ($US285).

Nguyen Tuan Sinh, head of Mai Linh Taxi Group’s labor union, said he went to Ben Thanh Market after the incident was reported to him and found the car was a scam taxi operating under Mai Linh’s name.

When Sinh and his officers found the car, which has license plate number 52V-0160, they tried to take photos but the driver attacked them.

Nguyen Ngoc Hieu, head of Mai Linh Taxi Group’s subsidiary Communist Party Committee, said taxi scams are not new and there have been numerous cases where drivers use the Mai Linh name to trick customers.

A representative for Mai Linh said scam taxi’s using Mai Linh’s name usually frequent Ben Thanh Market, Bach Dang Port and the Saigon Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Mai Linh said they have asked the authorities for a solution, but the scam taxis still exist.

The company advised its customers to pay close attention to the driver’s uniform, the logo and the phone number on the cab in order to avoid the ploy.

Recently, there have been an increasing number of scam taxis in HCMC reported by foreign customers.

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