In Mass Trial, 30 Sentenced to Death for Drug Smuggling

Thirty people were today sentenced to death in Vietnam in a single trial, the AP reports. The 21 men and nine women were convicted of heroin trafficking during a 20-day trial, said to be the largest such trial the country has ever held. The defendants were found to belong to various drug rings that smuggled nearly two tons of heroin from Laos through Vietnam and into China. Dozens of others were also found guilty and sentenced to prison, the BBC reports; in total, 89 people had been tried. (More Vietnam stories.)