Migrants get drug trade tip - think!

 

A LOCAL government councillor has warned Vietnamese Australians not to risk their lives smuggling drugs, with one Sydney woman facing a Vietnamese firing squad for drug trafficking.

 

Thang Ngo, a councillor at Fairfield City Council in Sydney's west, said the case of Le My Linh, convicted of trafficking heroin and sentenced to death last year, should serve as a warning to anyone contemplating smuggling drugs.

 

 Linh, 43, was convicted of drug trafficking last August after being caught at the airport with 888g of heroin and 209g of diazepam hidden on her body.

 

Vietnamese media reported that Linh told police she had been offered $52,219 to deliver the drugs to Australia.

 

Her appeal against the death sentence was rejected and on Thursday she appealed to Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong for clemency - her last avenue for a reprieve.

 

Mr Ngo said some Vietnamese Australians wrongly believed that, as Australian citizens, they would be subjected to Australian law, even if the offence was committed in Vietnam.

 

He said there were reports of at least eight Vietnamese Australians being detained in Vietnam on drug charges.

 

Mr Ngo urged those who hoped to get rich quickly by smuggling drugs to think of the effect drugs have on young users and on the image of the Australia's Vietnamese community.

 

``Drug smuggling is an evil act of greed and smugglers and drug lords are nothing short of scums of the earth who profit from other people's suffering,'' he said.

 

Firing squads in Vietnam executed 55 people on drug-related charges in 2001.