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Vietnam sentences Singapore man to death for trafficking heroin

A court in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday sentenced a Singaporean man to death for trafficking 2.5 kilograms of heroin.

Lee Loke Dah, 40, was arrested at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in December 2014 with a plastic bag containing thousands of capsules. Further tests confirmed that the drug was heroin.
The man, who had entered the country four days earlier, told investigators that he stole the bag from a stranger in a hotel in District 5 and that he was not aware of the drug.

Prosecutors rejected these claims. The court found him guilty of drug trafficking.
Vietnam has some of the world’s toughest drug laws. The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is punishable by death. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine also face the death penalty.