A court in Vietnam sentenced 27 people to death on Friday after finding them guilty of trafficking more than 600 kilos of narcotics including heroin, ketamine and methamphetamine, state media reported.

Gang leader and notorious female crime boss Vu Hoang Anh, alias Oanh Ha, was among those condemned to death, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

The 35-member ring smuggled 626 kilos (1,380 pounds) of drugs from Cambodia into Vietnam between March 2018 and November 2022, the paper said, citing the court ruling.

The eight members not sentenced to die were given jail terms ranging from 20 years to life, after a four-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City.

The court said the case involved a particularly serious cross-border drug trafficking operation over a long period of time, Tuoi Tre reported.

The suspects used social media networks such as Signal, adopting nicknames like ?Colombia? and ?Mosscau? or ?Mosscau Russia? to avoid detection.

To ensure secrecy in their operations, the network used messaging app Signal and phone numbers from the United States or Cambodia to communicate about the drug transactions.

The 67-year-old Oanh Ha was given amnesty in 2009 from a previous 20-year jail sentence on drug trafficking charges.

She was jailed several times later for different or similar crimes.

Tough drug laws

According to the court, Oanh led the defendants in successfully transporting and trafficking 626 kilos of drugs from Cambodia for consumption in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other cities of Vietnam.

Investigators have determined that the total amount of money involved in the network was around $54.8 million.

The indictment said that from early 2020 onwards, Oanh transferred up to $20,000 per trip to traffickers who transported the drugs concealed in cars or engine blocks.

A total of 129 engine blocks were smuggled successfully from Cambodia to Vietnam, Tuoi Tre said.

Communist Vietnam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world, and is notoriously secretive about its executions.

There is no indication when the executions would be carried out.

Vietnamese courts routinely hand out death sentences for drug convictions, and the country is a leading executioner globally, according to Amnesty International.

The country is close to the ?Golden Triangle? drug-producing region where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet, with Vietnamese police saying Ho Chi Minh City is increasingly becoming a hub for traffickers as transport infrastructure has improved in recent years.

Anyone caught with more than 600 grams (21 ounces) of heroin or more than 2.5 kilos of methamphetamine can face the death penalty.

A 2021 Amnesty International report said partial disclosures by authorities ?indicated that hundreds of people continued to be sentenced to death yearly?.

Many face long spells in detention before they are executed, with information about their trials and deaths scarce.

Since 2013, Vietnam has carried out death sentences by lethal injection, replacing executions by firing squads. (Courtesy, excluding headline, AFP)

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