HO CHI MINH CITY, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Police of Vietnam's central highlands Dak Lak province have detained a 38-year-old woman from northern Bac Kan province for transporting heroin from Laos to Vietnam.
Phan Thi Dao was detained on Tuesday when she was transporting 22 cakes of heroin hidden in a power generator on an interprovincial coach to Ho Chi Minh City, Dak Lak police said Wednesday.
The detainee said she was hired by a Vietnamese woman to go to Laos via a border gate in the central region, buy the heroin, carry the drug to Vietnam through another border gate in the central highlands region, and transport it to Ho Chi Minh City with a wage of 50 million Vietnamese dong (nearly 2,200 U.S. dollars).
Dao confessed that before her arrest on Tuesday, using the same route and trick, she had successfully transported heroin from Laos to Ho Chi Minh City twice. A cake of heroin weighs 340 to 350 grams.
According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty.
