Nguyen Duc Manh, 35, and Andrew Eachan Alexander, 26, were found guilty of "illegal trading in narcotic substances." The latter should be deported from Vietnam upon completing his sentence, the court ruled on Monday.

Manh was a drug addict and ran an eatery in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. He became acquainted with many foreigners looking for drugs, learned online how to mix drugs with additives and coloring, ordered equipment from a Chinese shopping site, produced synthetic narcotic pills on his own and sold them to foreigners for VND300,000 each.

In December last year police officers arrested Alexander with two bags of marijuana and three ecstasy pills. He confessed to buying drugs regularly from Manh and selling them to others, mainly foreigners.

Based on his testimony, officers raided Manh's house and seized 232 gram of methamphetamine.

They discovered he had sold in all 232 grams of meth and two grams of ketamine while the Scotsman had sold 1.4 grams of ecstasy and meth and five grams of marijuana.

Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws.

Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine face the death penalty. The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death.