HANOI, May 2: The alleged mastermind of Vietnam's biggest drug ring collapsed in the dock here on Friday as he and 21 others including eight police officers went on trial for trafficking huge quantities of heroin, witnesses said on Friday.

Some 500 people packed into the small courtroom for the start of the trial, cramming adjoining corridors and stairwells.

The case involves a highly sophisticated heroin syndicate allegedly masterminded by Vu Xuan Truong, a 37-year-old police captain with the anti-crime unit in the interior ministry.

According to witnesses, Truong, dressed in prison blues and handcuffed, collapsed on the witness stand as charges of drug trafficking, possession and storage were read out against him.

More than 40 people have been arrested in connection with the drug ring, which according to police has smuggled more than 400 kgs (880 pounds) of drugs into Vietnam since 1992.

Earlier this week one of the five presiding judges in the case told newspapers that as many as 10 people could face the death penalty, including Truong, his wife and brother who also went on trial on Friday.

The foreign press has been barred from attending the trial.

And each defendant has only been allowed to have one family member attend the hearing because the courtroom is only designed for 200 people.

Three women, including Truong's wife Nguyen Thi Lua who was arrested with her husband in July at their home when police found nearly five kilos (10 pounds) of hero in and $80,000, face a possible death sentence.

But Truong has promised to turn informant in exchange for lenient sentences forLua and his brother.

``At the trial I will declare who had betrayed me and reveal some particularly important figures in exchange for being cremated after death and saving my wife and brother from the death sentence,'' Truong was quoted as saying by the Lao Dong newspaper earlier this week. The death penalty can be meted out to any person convicted of possessing at least one kg (2.2 pounds) of drugs. The case dates back to 1995 when Laotian Sieng Pheng and another Laotian were arrested with 15 kgs (33 pounds) of heroin. He earned a last-minute reprieve from the firing squad in exchange for names of those involved in a massive drugs smuggling ring. Pheng is one of the 22 on trial.

Earlier on Friday nearly 1,000 people gathered in front of the courthouse which stands opposite the remains of former ``Hanoi Hilton'' prison where US Ambassador to Hanoi Douglas Peterson was held during the Vietnam war.

But hundreds of Hanoi residents outside the courthouse who were hoping to hear The revelations first hand were frustrated by their inability to follow the proceedings.

``We want loudspeakers! We want loudspeakers!'' chanted a handful of men outside the iron grill of the courthouse as hundreds more looked on. Another onlooker, a 50-year-old shopkeeper, wearing a Pierre Cardin shirt, who watched crowd from across the street, expressed his anger over the absence of loudspeakers to hear the proceedings.

``They said this would be a public trial. But it isn't,'' he said. By mid-afternoon police had cordoned off the area in front of the courthouse, and only about 70 people remained, hoping to pick up some gossip on the proceedings.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.