Group of 11 people arrested in Nghe An for stopping and robbing cars at night on National Highway 1A

On May 13, Hoang Mai Town Police announced that they had successfully broken up Project 519C, arresting 11 suspects for robbery. Notably, these suspects were all very young but had dropped out of school, partied, competed, lived at night, and had extremely reckless and daring behavior. The leader of the group was Nguyen Ba Thai (born in 1992), residing in Tan Tien block, Quynh Thien ward, Hoang Mai town.

On the morning of May 8, Hoang Mai City Police received a report that a group of people robbed a number of container truck drivers at 2 a.m. The group threw rocks at the truck, breaking the windows, injuring the driver and requiring him to be taken to the hospital.

Nguyen Ba Thai is the subject who planned and directed the traffic stop. Photo: Quynh Trang

Realizing the dangerous and serious nature of the incident and the unprecedented nature of the incident, the leaders of Hoang Mai City Police established Project 519C, urgently started the investigation, divided into working groups to go in different directions to examine the scene and collect information from witnesses to the robbery.

According to the victims’ statements, the group consisted of more than 10 people on 4 motorbikes. While the drivers were sitting in their cars, the group came to knock on the car door and ask for money. The NTA driver said: “I was afraid they would cause trouble, so I gave them 50,000 VND to let me go, but they said it was too little and asked me to give them a few hundred thousand VND. I did not agree, so they broke the glass door and picked up rocks to throw at the front of the car. I drove away, but they continued to chase me and used rocks to attack me, breaking the driver’s side window. I also suffered a minor injury to my hand.”

From the information provided by the victim, the Investigation Committee extracted security cameras on National Highway 1A to screen and identify suspects.

The robberies occurred at 1 a.m. At this time, the road was deserted. Because the robberies took place at night, it was difficult to determine the characteristics of the subjects. Not to mention that this was a new criminal group emerging in the area, so verifying information was difficult.

However, with high spirit and determination, not allowing the robbers to act recklessly and disrupt security and order, the commander of the task force mobilized maximum forces, deployed working groups to conduct a "hot" investigation of the subjects, with the determination to solve the case as soon as possible.

The target group is quite young, from 15 to 27 years old. Photo: Quynh Trang

After more than 3 hours of investigation, the Investigation Team arrested 9 subjects all residing in Hoang Mai Town: Nguyen Van Duan (born 2002) residing in Hamlet 3, Quynh Vinh Commune; Nguyen Ba Trung (born 2002) residing in Tan Tien Block; Nguyen Ba Cong (born 2001) residing in Tan Hung Block; Le Dang Hoang (born 2002), Nguyen Ba Son (born 2002) residing in Quynh Thien Ward; Dau Danh Thanh (born 2002); Bui Van Sinh (born 2002) and Ngo Tru Bac (born 2001) all residing in Mai Hung Ward and Nguyen Nho Tuan (born 2003) residing in Hamlet 1, Quynh Loc Commune.

At the police station, the suspects confessed to all their actions. Based on their statements, Nguyen Ba Thai and Vu Le Khanh were arrested, with Nguyen Ba Thai being the mastermind, planning and directing these robberies.

According to the suspects' statements, over a period of 1-2 hours, they stopped 3 cars to "beg for money". At around 9:00 p.m. on May 7, the group including Duan, Khanh, Cong, Hoang, Son, Bac, Sinh and Tuan played at Trung's house. At this time, the groups turned on dance music and broadcast live on social networks. Thai immediately called the group to go drink beer at an empty lot near a gas station next to Highway 48. Here, Thai invited the group to go to Highway 1A to stop cars to ask for money to spend. The group agreed and went on 4 motorbikes towards the Muong Thanh Hotel to find "prey".

The area they planned was National Highway 1A from Muong Thanh Hotel (Hoang Mai) to Hoang Mai Industrial Park. When they arrived at the hotel, they discovered a container truck parked in front of the hotel. Thai directed the subjects to approach the vehicle. Khanh and Trung went to the car door, the rest lined up around the vehicle. Khanh knocked on the window and asked the driver to give them some money for a drink. The driver gave Khanh 50,000 VND. After receiving the money, the subjects continued driving towards the 36 intersection.

Discovering a container truck parked on La Man Bridge, they approached to “beg for money” but the driver did not roll down the window and did not give them money. Thai then used a stick to hit the car door and the driver started the engine and ran away. The group picked up rocks and threw them at the back of the truck and chased after it but failed.

Fearing that the incident would be exposed, Thai asked the group to remove the vehicle's license plate, replace it with a fake one, then continue driving to Hoang Mai Industrial Park and gather at a roadside cafe. There were many cars stopping and parking there, so Thai ordered the group to block all the cars.

Seeing a container truck parked in this area, Khanh, Trung, and Tuan went to the car door with the same trick. Khanh knocked on the door and asked the driver to roll down the window. When the driver rolled down the window, they immediately asked for money. The driver gave Khanh 50,000 VND, but Khanh said it was too little, saying it was not enough to fill up the gas tank.

The driver said, “How much do you want to take?” Khanh answered as he pleased. At this point, Trung asked the driver to give him a few hundred thousand more dong, but the victim refused and rolled up the car window. Khanh then smashed the car window and broke the car mirror, while picking up rocks and throwing them at the front of the car and the car door.

The other subjects also used rocks to attack the driver. Being attacked, the driver backed the car into the gas station. The group went out and told Thai. Thai told the group to wait on the side of the road, then got in Trung's car and drove back to the car, threatening to ask the driver for more money, but he refused, so Thai threw a rock at the driver's side window, breaking the window and injuring the driver's hand.

Currently, the Investigation Police Agency has detained the subjects to serve the investigation and completed the procedures to prosecute the subjects before the law.