Four Vietnamese nat-ionals were found guilty of drug traff-icking yesterday for their role in transporting 11 kilograms of methamphetamine across the Laos-Cambodia border in March.

Kor Vandy, presiding judge of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said yesterday  Bun Naklot, 36, had received a life sentence and been fined 60 million riel (US$15,000).

Two of Bun Naklot’s accomplices, Doung Banh Long, 44, and Dinh Thi Huan, 43, each received 20-year prison sentences and fines of 40 million riel (US$10,000).

A third accomplice, 17-year-old Doung Viet Lam, was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Kor Vandy added that two additional suspects, Cao Thi Thanh Thuy, 29, and Doung Hhanh Ly, 16, had been found not guilty and released.

The six had been arrested in March this year at a residence in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district, the court heard.

Police confiscated 11 kilograms of drugs in the arrest, including about 80,000 methamphetamine pills and three kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, with a total street value of $60,000, Pao Sam Eng, chief of the Ministry of Interior’s anti-drug office, told the court.

Authorities had been investigating the smugglers for more than a week, as they moved from Stung Treng province to the capital, Pao Sam Eng said.

Chea Hay, the defence lawyer for all six men, said yesterday he was happy that the court had dropped the charges against  two of his clients but said he did not want to comment on the guilty verdicts it had handed down.

Chea Hay said he would be meeting with the four convicted traffickers shortly to discuss the possibility of an appeal.

During the trial in September, in an attempt to receive a reduced sentence, Bun Nak-lot confessed his guilt and said he had acted alone.