Vietnam sentences two Filippino drug smugglers to death

HANOI - A Philippine man and woman have been sentenced to death in Vietnam for smuggling nearly five kilograms (11 pounds) of cocaine into the communist country, reports said Friday.

Emmanuel Sillo Camacho, 39, was found guilty at a trial in Hanoi on Thursday of carrying 18 packages of cocaine - totalling some 3.4 kilograms - to Vietnam from Brazil, the Tien Phong newspaper said. He was caught with the drugs at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport in 2013.

Donna Buenagua Mazon, also 39, was sentenced to death by a court in southern Ho Chi Minh city earlier this month, after being caught with 1.5 kilograms of cocaine in December 2013.

Communist Vietnam maintains some of the world's toughest anti-drug laws. Anyone found guilty of possessing more than 600 grams (20 ounces) of heroin, or more than 20 kilos of opium, can face death.

Dozens of foreigners have been sentenced over drug offences, although it has been decades since a foreign national was executed in the communist country.