Exposing the sophisticated tricks of a transnational 'thief' group

Motorcycle theft gang of "big shots"

The motorbike theft and consumption ring in many provinces and cities across the country led by Ly Nhat Quy Cuong (born 1998), residing in Thanh Thoi An commune, Tran De district, Soc Trang province, used to be a nightmare for many people. Because the "henchmen" in this ring have carried out a series of motorbike thefts from rural to urban areas.

It is worth mentioning that many of the thieves in this ring are "famous" people. Among them, Nguyen Dinh Son (born in 1989), residing in Tan Son commune, Do Luong district, Nghe An province, has been imprisoned 3 times for practicing "two-fingered" profession. Accordingly, from 2010, 2013 and 2017, Son received sentences of 33 months in prison, 40 months in prison and 3 years and 4 months in prison for "Theft of property".

Le Dinh Giang (born in 1989), residing in Thanh Hoa province, was also sentenced to prison four times for "Theft of property". The highest sentence Giang received was four years in prison. Despite having to live in prison many times, this young man was not interested in working and chose to make a living by "two fingers", regardless of the law.

Another link in this theft ring is the active participation of Nguyen Van Cuong (born 1987), residing in Thanh Linh commune, Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province. This young man is a "famous" person who has been sentenced to prison 4 times and sent to an educational facility for stealing other people's property.

After being released from prison, these subjects continued to make the same mistake when they and their accomplices committed a series of motorbike thefts in many provinces and cities. In particular, Nguyen Dinh Son alone committed 20 motorbike thefts in the districts of Nghi Loc, Dien Chau and Vinh City... Son's method was to scout around people's houses, take advantage of the negligence of the vehicle owners and quickly "take the goods".

This transnational motorbike theft ring also had the active participation of many other subjects. The investigation agency determined that from April to May 2024, Thai Xuan Duc (born 2003), residing in Ha Tinh province, stole 14 motorbikes (worth more than 144 million VND); Le Dinh Giang (born 1989), residing in Thanh Hoa province, stole 11 motorbikes (worth more than 194 million VND). It is worth mentioning that Giang also has a bad personal history, having been imprisoned 4 times for "Theft of property".

Meanwhile, Le Khac Dung (born in 1988), residing in Nghe An province, committed two motorbike thefts (worth more than 19 million VND); Nguyen Van Cuong stole six motorbikes (worth more than 112 million VND); Pham Ba Quyen (born in 1989), residing in Thanh Hoa province, stole seven motorbikes (worth more than 106 million VND); Bui Trong Quoc (born in 1993), residing in Bac Ninh province, stole three motorbikes (worth 81 million VND) from many people across the country.

The mastermind is revealed

The common point of the thieves in this ring is that they all sell motorbikes to the contact Ly Nhat Quy Cuong. Cuong, although young, is a cunning person in buying and selling stolen motorbikes.

First, Cuong created fake accounts, posted about buying and selling stolen vehicles in the groups “Northern undocumented motorbikes” and “Northern KGT motorbikes buying and selling”… The transactions were carried out over the phone and on social networks.

After stealing a motorbike, the subjects will take photos and send the chassis and engine numbers to Cuong to "fix the price". Depending on the type of motorbike and the vehicle's papers, Cuong will give different prices. When the two parties agree on a selling price, Cuong will be responsible for making fake papers to deceive the authorities and facilitate transportation.

After that, Ly Nhat Quy Cuong will guide the thieves to park their vehicles at the gathering places managed by him. As for the motorbike thieves in Nghe An, they will gather at the parking lot at the intersection of Hung Thinh commune, Hung Nguyen district.

For the motorbikes that had their locks broken, Cuong contacted a motorbike repairman to remake the locks. To avoid suspicion that the motorbikes were stolen, Cuong said that these were motorbikes purchased from the police for liquidation. For each motorbike that had its lock repaired, Cuong paid the repairman 200,000 VND.

After “magically” transforming the stolen motorbikes with full papers, Ly Nhat Quy Cuong hired Nguyen Duc Vu (born 2003), residing in Ha Tinh province, to gather and transport the motorbikes to Ho Chi Minh City for him. For each motorbike, Cuong paid Vu 400,000 VND.

During the process of transporting stolen vehicles from North to South, Cuong asked Vu to keep the sender's information anonymous, only recording the recipient's phone number, Cuong, and the phone number of the shipping company receiving and consigning the goods. Cuong then directly called the shipping companies to monitor and guide the loading and unloading of the goods.

The investigation agency determined that Ly Nhat Quy Cuong bought 35 motorbikes (worth 491 million VND) and then sold 14 motorbikes to Nguyen Vu Len (born in 1994), residing in Kien Giang province (illegally profiting more than 47 million VND). In addition, Cuong also advertised motorbikes for sale on social networking groups. The motorbikes he bought, Len sold to a man in Cambodia named Phen.

In this case, Danh Vang Linh was the subject who helped Phen receive and collect cars from Vietnamese car dealers before the "goods" were brought across the Cambodian border.

Payback day for the "thieves" group

After the theft and consumption of property obtained by others through criminal acts were exposed, the subjects in the ring were arrested. Recently, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance trial of the defendants Ly Nhat Quy Cuong, Nguyen Dinh Son, Thai Xuan Duc, Le Khac Dung, Le Dinh Giang, Nguyen Van Cuong, Pham Ba Quyen, Bui Trong Quoc, and Nguyen Duc Vu for the crime of "Theft of property". Separately, the two defendants Nguyen Vu Len and Danh Vang Linh were prosecuted for the crime of "Consuming property obtained by others through criminal acts".

At the trial, the defendants admitted to the crime. As the mastermind, defendant Ly Nhat Quy Cuong said he knew Nguyen Vu Len was a person who specialized in buying and selling used motorbikes, so he contacted him. The two sides discussed and agreed to buy motorbikes with Western license plates, and for motorbikes from other provinces, they mainly bought manual transmission motorbikes, limiting the purchase of scooters. For motorbikes without papers, Cuong must be responsible for handling them when discovered by the authorities.

After finding a “buyer”, Cuong posted on social media about buying stolen motorbikes. In just a short time, Cuong had connected with many professional thieves, committing a series of motorbike thefts from people.

As the defendant who stole the most motorbikes, Nguyen Dinh Son confessed to having committed 20 motorbike thefts. Most of the motorbikes that Son stole were due to the negligence of the owners. Many of the owners left the keys on the motorbikes, and some were parked on the side of the road without anyone watching. Taking advantage of the negligence of the owners, the defendant easily committed the theft.

At the witness stand, the defendants all admitted their crimes and expressed remorse. They asked the court to consider reducing their sentences so they could have a chance to correct their mistakes and start a new life.

The jury determined that in this case, defendant Ly Nhat Quy Cuong committed the crime as the ringleader and was sentenced to 13 years in prison; defendant Nguyen Dinh Son was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "Theft of property".

Also with the above crime, defendant Nguyen Duc Vu was sentenced to 7 years in prison; Thai Xuan Duc to 6 years in prison; Le Dinh Giang to 6 years in prison; Nguyen Van Cuong to 5 years in prison; Pham Ba Quyen to 4 years and 6 months in prison; Bui Trong Quoc to 4 years in prison; Le Khac Dung to 9 months in prison.

For the crime of "Receiving property obtained by others through criminal acts", defendant Nguyen Vu Len was sentenced to 5 years in prison, Danh Vang Linh to 3 years in prison with a suspended sentence.

The verdict is not only a fitting punishment for those who disregard the law, are lazy to work but want to enjoy life illegally, but also a wake-up call for those who have similar intentions. At the same time, this is also a reminder for every citizen to raise awareness of protecting their property, proactively preventing to not create conditions for criminals to strike.