HANOI, May 21 (Xinhua) -- A forester from Vietnam's northern Son La province has been arrested when transporting 22 cakes of heroin from Son La to a drug kingpin in northern Lang Son province, local media reported on Monday.
Pham Xuan Lan, a 37-year-old forester of the Son La Forest Ranger Department, was detained in Lang Son last week when he was driving a truck with heroin on it, online newspaper VnExpress reported. Lan confessed that he transported the drug to Trieu Ky Voong from Lang Son for a wage of 2.8 billion Vietnamese dong (over 123,000 U.S. dollars).
Voong, 49, was also detained last week. Voong is the leader of a ring that smuggles drugs from Laos to Vietnam, and he owns many hotels, restaurants and properties in the border province of Lang Son.
According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty.
