a gang of 29 drug traffickers accused of smuggling up to 500 kilograms...

a gang of 29 drug traffickers accused of smuggling up to 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of heroin would face a mass trial in Vietnam in January 2005, a court official said.
The first arrests in the case happened in August 2003 after a lengthy surveillance operation by anti-narcotics police from the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City.
The defendants were charged with trafficking between 36 and 538 kilograms of heroin each from the central province of Nghe An, bordering Laos, to Ho Chi Minh City.
"Twenty-nine defendants will be tried for charges of drug trafficking and illegal weapons possession," Judge Nguyen Duc Sau of Ho Chi Minh City's People's Court said.
The trial was expected to last 20 days.
All but one of the 29 defendants may face the death penalty, the Thanh Nien newspaper said.