17 January 2019 :

A school teacher in northern Vietnam has received the death penalty for drug trafficking, state media reported on 15 January 2019.
Vu Ba Xenh, 40, was arrested in June 2018 in Nghe An province with 15 kilograms of drugs following a police shootout, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
On the day of his arrest, Xenh, who was offered 200 dollars to transport drugs around Nghe An, had been meeting smugglers on the Vietnamese side of a forested border area to transport the drugs onward within Vietnam, but the group was intercepted by police.
Although Xenh was successfully apprehended, other members of the group opened fire on the police and fled.
Two police officers were shot, with one permanently confined to a wheelchair as a result of his injuries.
Police found 20 packages of heroin, 7 kilograms of methamphetamine and 12,000 pills of an undisclosed "synthetic" drug at the scene, including the 15 kilograms of drugs found on Xenh's person, as well as 1 gun.