Vietnam court sentences 11 to death in major drug trafficking case

A court in Vietnam sentenced 11 people to death in one of the country's largest drug trafficking cases after an investigation that began when four flight attendants were caught carrying narcotics hidden in toothpaste tubes in 2023, state media reported on Thursday.



The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court handed down the death sentences to 11 defendants convicted of drug trafficking in a case that involved 227 accused people in total, online newspaper VnExpress reported.



The case stemmed from the discovery in March 2023 of more than 10 kg of drugs concealed in 157 toothpaste tubes carried by four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants arriving from Paris at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat airport, VnExpress reported.



Authorities later determined the women had unknowingly transported the drugs, according to the report. Investigators subsequently uncovered what prosecutors described as a transnational trafficking network that smuggled narcotics disguised as consumer goods from France into Vietnam.