Tran and Pham were found to have internally smuggled a total of 232 grams of pure heroin with a maximum street value of about $462,000.Tran, 50, told police he was recruited on the promise of making $20,000 after being lent money he lost at Adelaide casino. He was later persuaded in Ho Chi Minh City to import the drugs because he was out of money.Pham, 29, said a passenger he identified to police at Melbourne Airport had taken the photos but he could not explain why.He claimed to have flown to Vietnam to see his girlfriend and was then recruited as a courier for $20,000.Both men pleaded guilty to importing a marketable quantity of heroin.
In his sentencing remarks this week, Judge Ross Howie said Tran, a depressed man with a drug habit and a gambling debt, was vulnerable to being recruited as a courier. He told Pham he was similarly vulnerable to the apparent "prospect of easy money".Judge Howie said Tran's minimum term of two years was substantially reduced because he had promised to help the prosecution. Pham was jailed for a minimum of three years and three months.
