Vietnamese Drug Smuggler Plays his Final Tune

An elderly Vietnamese national was convicted by the Siem Reap Provincial Court and sentenced to 28 years in prison for smuggling almost six kilograms of cocaine from Brazil to Cambodia stashed in a piano last year, according to authorities. Presiding judge Duch Soksarin said accused 60-year-old Le Van Dang was charged by the provincial prosecutor with “drug transporting” under article 40 of the Cambodian Law on Drug Control and fined 60 million riel (about $15,000), along with his jail sentence.

“The court has convicted him to 28 years in prison and a fine of 60 million riel,” he said. Colonel Oum Amara, the Provincial Chief of the Anti-Drug Unit, said Mr. Dang traveled from Ecuador to Siem Reap via Brazil, Qatar and Kuala Lumpur, arriving at Siem Reap International Airport on April 15 last year. He stashed the drugs inside a piano he was transporting.

He said customs officials discovered the drug when the piano arrived the next day last April 16, before anti-drug police made their arrest, seizing 5.85 kilos of cocaine. “He was arrested at Siem Reap International Airport on April 16 after he had come to collect his piano at the provincial airport,” he said.

read more http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24317/vietnamese-drug-smuggler-plays-his-final-tune/