A Vietnamese court sentenced 17 people to death and another 10 to life in prison on Monday in the country's biggest prosecution of drug dealers.

Vietnam, a conduit for heroin smuggled from the Golden Triangle poppy-growing region where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet, has been stepping up its campaign against drugs as part of a broad crackdown on "social evil."

Among those sentenced to death were two former anti-narcotics policemen from the central province of Nghe An, on the border with Laos, said a witness at the closing session of a trial that began on January 11 in Ho Chi Minh City.

In all, 29 defendants pleaded guilty to trafficking more than 800 kg (1,750 lb) of heroin over a period of nearly five years, the biggest volume ever cited at a drugs trial in Vietnam.

Trafficking in more than 600 grams (1.32 lb) of heroin is punishable by death by firing squad.

Two of the gang members received jail terms of 20 years and four years for illegal money transfers, the witness said.

The main defendant, Nguyen Van Hai, 44, admitted to bringing in the bulk of the heroin from Laos and Cambodia, beginning in 2001, state media reported.

Hai and many of his accomplices were arrested in 2003.

In early January, the same court sentenced six people to death for selling heroin and opium in Ho Chi Minh City between June 2001 and March 2002.

Source: Agencies