Van Dung Vu found not guilty over nail salon heroin shipment

A jury has found a Mackay man not guilty of aggravated drug possession after a court heard he was tricked into collecting 1.5kg of heroin from a nail salon. 

A jury has found a Mackay man not guilty of aggravated drug possession after a court heard he was tricked into collecting 1.5kg of heroin from a nail salon.

A jury has found Van Dung Vu not guilty of aggravated drug possession after he unwittingly collected boxes containing more than 1.5kg of heroin from a Mackay shopping centre nail salon.

The unanimous verdict delivered at 2.30pm on Tuesday comes after a multi-day trial during which the jury heard from Mr Vu, via an interpreter, as well as Brisbane-based police officers.

Mr Vu had collected boxes of plastic gloves from Kathy’s Nails salon at Caneland Central on March 23, 2021, which had more than 1.5kg of cocaine hidden inside brown paper bags. 

Mr Vu, who had arranged to pick up the boxes for a $5000 fee, said he thought the boxes contained cigarettes. 

Mackay Supreme Court on Tuesday heard Mr Vu, opened one of the boxes after loading them into his Tiago vehicle. 

He later pulled over and took photographs of the inside contents and sent them via text to family members and asked them if they knew what the contents were inside. 

Justice North said when Mr Vu did not receive a response, “he decided to continue” with the delivery to but while driving he received a message from a family member that read: “Be careful, you may have been tricked.” 

It was then when police officers intercepted Mr Vu’s vehicle and he reportedly became aware the boxes actually contained heroin. 

Defence barrister Gavin Webber earlier in the trial said the issue centred on Mr Vu’s knowledge of what was in the package “and if he honestly and reasonably believed something else was in those boxes”.

During his opening argument to the jury Mr Webber questioned why a person trying to obtain 2kg of a substance containing heroin would use their own details to track the package or call the courier from their own mobile phone

.“(It’s) just a bit too obvious he has organised and arranged to have all this heroin sent,” Mr Webber said.

Mr Vu opted to give evidence during day two of the trial.

Through an interpreter, he said he was a trade qualified baker and had been out of work at the time when he responded to a job ad on Facebook.

He said the person referred to themself as Chusau and had wanted someone to collect a consignment of cigarettes shipped from Vietnam.

Mr Vu told the court the cost of a single packet of cigarettes in Australia would pay for 10 packets in Vietnam and he thought this was a way to avoid paying tax on them.

“If he had told me it was heroin I would say no because I know it is illegal here,” he told the court.

“I did agree to accept the cigarettes because I just thought that I have seen cigarettes sold in petrol stations and I did not think that it is a dangerous type of product.”

The court heard once he had received the package “I did not feel that it was like cigarettes”, but said he still had no reason to believe there was dangerous drugs in the boxes.

Mr Vu said the first he had learned the boxes contained drugs was when he was arrested.

Baker claims he was tricked into receiving heroin at nail salon

A man who received about 1.5kg of pure heroin concealed within boxes of plastic gloves claimed he thought it was cigarettes.

The drugs had been sent to a Mackay nail salon arriving on March 23, 2021.

Van Dung Du told a Mackay Supreme Court he had been out of work and responded to an ad on Facebook for a job, which was for someone to collect cigarettes on their behalf.

The court heard he was expecting to be paid $5000 after he had collected the package.

However Australian Border Force officers inspected the consignment in Brisbane and discovered the drugs.

Police later replaced them with an inert substance before organising for it to be couriered to the address on the label.

Van Dung Du has pleaded not guilty to aggravated heroin possession after undercover police delivered a package containing the fake drugs to Kathy’s Nails Spa and Beauty at Caneland Central.

Police arrested Mr Du later that morning.

Defence barrister Gavin Webber said the issue centred on Mr Vu’s knowledge of what was in the package “and if he honestly and reasonably believed something else was in those boxes”.

During his opening argument to the jury Mr Webber questioned why a person trying to obtain 2kg of a substance containing heroin would use their own details to track the package or call the courier from their own mobile phone.

“(It’s) just a bit too obvious he has organised and arranged to have all this heroin sent,” Mr Webber said.

Mr Vu opted to give evidence during day two of the trial.

Through an interpreter, he said he was a trade qualified baker and had been out of work at the time when he responded to a job ad on Facebook.

He said the person referred to themself as Chusau and had wanted someone to collected a consignment of cigarettes from Vietnam.

Mr Vu told the court the cost of a single packet of cigarettes in Australia would pay for 10 packets in Vietnam and he thought this was a way to avoid paying tax on them.

“If he had told me it was heroin I would say no because I know it is illegal here,” he told the court.

“I did agree to accept the cigarettes because I just thought that I have seen cigarettes sold in petrol stations and I did not think that it is a dangerous type of product.”

The court heard once he had received the package “I did not feel that it was like cigarettes”, but said he still had no reason to believe there was dangerous drugs in the boxes.

Mr Vu said the first he had learned the boxes contained drugs was when he was arrested.

The trial continues.

1.5kg pure heroin: Man denies knowing drugs were in the package

When Australian Border Force intercepted a package destined for an address in Mackay, officers found 1.5kg of pure heroin concealed in brown wrapping paper, a court heard.

Police then replaced the dangerous drugs with an inert substance and set up a sting.

Van Dung Vu has pleaded not guilty in Mackay Supreme Court to aggravated heroin possession after he was located by police with the replacement substance in the boot of a vehicle he had been driving on the Bruce Highway at Sarina on March 23, 2021.

Crown prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence told a six-man, six-woman jury that five days before the arrest ABF officers were examining a package that had been intercepted at Brisbane.

Inside were two boxes that contained eight smaller boxes within which were 80 boxes of plastic gloves.

Inside those boxes were 24 packages wrapped in brown paper that held a substance that tested positive for heroin.

Ms Lawrence said the substance weighed more than 2kg which was analysed to contain 1503.323g of pure heroin.

The court heard police replaced the packaged with an innocent substance.

On March 19 and 22 Mr Vu contacted DHL, the courier tasked with delivering the package, and asked about its whereabouts.

1.5kg of pure heroin was destined to be delivered to a business at Caneland Central.

The court heard police sent a text message to the contact number on the DHL consignment label stating the package would be delivered between 9 and 11am on March 23.

About 10am a police officer disguised as a DHL courier delivered the consignment to Kathy’s Nails Spa and Beauty at Caneland Central, the business owned by Mr Vu’s former partner.

The court heard the package was taken outside and placed into the boot of a white Toyota Tarago, driven by Mr Vu.

The court heard police watched as at 11.30am Mr Vu, 35, pulled over and removed one of the boxes of gloves.

Two minutes later he sent a picture of the box of gloves and package to two people.

“Our law specifically says that any person who commits a crime such as the case here with possessing dangerous drugs is deemed to be guilty of the intended crime,” Ms Lawrence said.

Barrister Gavin Webber said he did not argue with “almost the entire prosecution case”.

The court heard the only thing in dispute was “the fundamental suggestion Mr Vu knew what was in those boxes was heroin”.

“This trial is going to be about this man here and whether you are satisfied that he actually knew what was in this consignment,” Mr Webber told the jury.

“There is an explanation to all of this … as to why he didn’t know there were dangerous drugs in the consignment.”

Four Brisbane police officers will be called to give evidence.

The trial, under Justice David North, continues.