HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — A Vietnam court sentenced 11 people to death on Wednesday, including two police officers, after finding them guilty of trafficking drugs over the border from Laos, state media reported.

After a two-day trial, the defendants were found guilty by a Hanoi court of smuggling around 140 kilograms (310 pounds) of narcotics including methamphetamine and pills in 2019, VNExpress reported.

The news site said the 42-year-old ringleader, Nguyen Thi Kim Huong, was given the lesser sentence of life in prison because she is raising a baby.

Last month, Vietnam abolished the death penalty for eight crimes, including espionage, graft and attempting to overthrow the government. Drug trafficking remains a capital offence, however.

Late last year, a Vietnamese court sentenced 27 people to death for trafficking 626 kilograms of drugs from Cambodia into Vietnam.

Vietnam has carried out death sentences by lethal injection since 2013 when it replaced execution by firing squad.

The number of executions has not been made public, but Amnesty International estimates more than 1,200 people were on death row in Vietnam by the end of 2023.