Northumberland man jailed in Vietnam for drug dealing

Andrew Eachan Alexander, from Humshaugh, near Hexham, was sentenced on Monday according to reports from Vietnam.

He was convicted of illegal trading in narcotic substances alongside 35-year-old local man Nguyen Duc Manh, who was sentenced to 18 years in jail.

The 26-year-old will be deported on completion of his sentence, English language newspaper VN Express has reported..

The court heard Manh was a drug addict who operated a food venue in Hanoi, through which had he had met a large number of foreign visitors wanting to buy drugs.

Manh taught himself on-line how to mix narcotics and, after ordering the necessary equipment from China over the Internet, began producing his own pills and selling them to tourists.

The operation came to light in December, when police arrested Andrew Alexander and found two bags of marijuana and three ecstasy pills in his possession.

He told officers he regularly bought drugs from Manh and sold them on, usually to visitors.

VN Express reports that a raid on Manh’s house uncovered 232g of methamphetamine and police discovered he had sold 232g of the drug and 2g of ketamine, while Andrew Alexander had sold 1.4g of ecstasy and meth and 5g of marijuana.

Rogues' gallery of Northumberland criminals jailed so far this year

Vietnam’s drug laws are notoriously tough and possession or smuggling of more than 600g of heroin or more than 2.5kg of methamphetamine, and production or sale of 100g of heroin or 300g of other illegal substances carry the death penalty.

A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth confirmed it had been assisting a British man in the country: “Our consular staff have been providing support to a British man and his family since his arrest in Vietnam in 2019.”

Andrew Alexander’s Facebook page says he is from Humshaugh, but the Gazette understands his family has not lived in the village for some time.

His public profile has not been updated since early last year but suggests he has been in the country for some years and was DJing at a club in Hanoi in January 2019.

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