Two men have been sentenced to death in Vietnam for throwing drug-fuelled raves in a psychiatric hospital.
A patient receiving treatment at a psychiatric hospital in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi was reportedly hosting raging parties in his soundproof room complete with strobe lights, loudspeakers and a DJ table.
He was able to get all of these things fitted into his room after making friends among staff at the hospital, where he was admitted as a patient in 2018.
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By 2020 he'd kitted his room out into a full-on rave pad where he is said to have held drug-fuelled parties complete with bright lights and booming music.
The parties were able to avoid immediate detection thanks to the soundproofing and help from friendly staff, but the party ended when police raided a rave and made arrests.
Two men, Nguyen Xuan Quy and Nguyen Van Ngoc, have since received the death penalty, while eight other people are going to be spending time behind bars, Vice reports.
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Quy was the patient admitted to the psychiatric hospital who steadily transformed his room from a place of rest to a rave pad.
He reportedly got fellow hospital residents who were having problems with addiction to help him put the parties on and run a drug ring, which sold to people outside the hospital.
Potential customers would visit patients posing as loved ones and caregivers to pick up their drugs, and the addicted patients would receive both money and a portion of the illegal substances for their work.
When police raided the hospital and busted the drug ring they found 15 kilograms of hard drugs including ketamine, methamphetamine and MDMA, Quy himself had more than five kilos of drugs in his room alone.
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Quy and Ngoc have been sentenced to the death penalty for their part in the drug-fuelled raves, while four other patients will be sent to prison with sentences as high as life imprisonment.
Two nurses and a hospital technician will also be headed for jail for up to seven years after admitting they knew about the drug ring but did nothing about it.
Do Thi Luu, Quy's doctor, was sentenced to three years in prison for abuse of power, while the hospital's director was dismissed for negligence.
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Serious drug related offences in Vietnam carry the death penalty and the country is one of the most prolific executers of prisoners in the world.
While the Vietnamese government is rather secretive about the exact numbers of people it executes, human rights groups believe they are behind only China and Iran when it comes to the death penalty.
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Topics: Crime, Drugs, World News
Joe Harker