Asian women run drugs from the Golden Triangle to pay gambling debts Gambling-addicted Asian women have been targeted by loan sharks at gambling venues then strong-armed into importing drugs. CRIMINAL syndicates are ­targeting gambling-addicted Asian women at Crown casino and forcing them to act as drug mules on heroin runs from the Golden Triangle. The County Court has recently dealt with a spate of middle-aged Asian women targeted by loan sharks at the casino and forced to run drugs to repay the debts. Last week, Judge Duncan Allen said he had "lost count" of the number of women with gambling addictions he had sentenced in the past two years for drug importation crimes. Each woman had been targeted by loan sharks at gambling venues, including the casino, then strong-armed into importing drugs. "During the last two years I've sentenced a large number of women ... who worked as couriers in order to service gambling debts," Judge Allen said. A solution was provided by the criminal groups to act as a courier. A star witness in a recent trial told authorities drug rings were deliberately targeting women with poor English at the casino to recruit them. Legal sources say many of the women prosecuted have received lengthy jail terms, lost houses and been ostracised by their communities after being caught and prosecuted. Last week, Van Thi Nguyen, 43, of North Melbourne, the mother of a 16-year-old boy, was sentenced to a minimum of two years and 10 months after being recruited by a criminal gang to import heroin from Vietnam in January 2011. Nguyen, who grew up in rural Vietnam and speaks ­limited English, moved to ­Australia with her former husband in 1994 and had no prior convictions. A machinist, she developed a gambling addiction after being unable to work following a workplace injury. You started gambling about six years ago. It appears when you divorced and you found yourself unemployed you sought refuge in Crown casino," Judge Allen said.