Saturday, a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Hoang Le Thuy, 42, a Vietnamese-Australian woman, to life imprisonment and her husband, Nguyen Van Huy, 41, to a 20-year jail term on Friday after convicting the couple of smuggling around half a kilo of heroin in 2006.
The couple, residents of Victoria, Australia, was arrested at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in July 2006 while traveling with their three young daughters. Security officials discovered 500 grams of heroin in ointment jars inside their suitcases. Trafficking more than 600 grams of heroin in Vietnam is punishable by death.
Last Sunday, an Australian woman of Vietnamese origin, 22-year-old Nguyen Thanh Huyen, was also arrested after customs officials found her hiding more than 73 grams of heroin in her underwear.
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