A couple who are living together lead children to breathe fire and beg for money, earning tens of millions of dong per month.

On October 15, the Criminal Police Department of Can Tho City Police is investigating a ring that has been leading children to hold oil in their mouths and spit fire at drinking establishments to beg for money, illegally earning tens of millions of dong each month.

At around 9am the same day, the Criminal Police force coordinated with Ninh Kieu Ward Police (Can Tho City) to conduct an administrative inspection of a house in Alley 2, Mau Than Street, and invited 5 people involved in the ring of herding children to hold oil and spit fire at drinking establishments.

Five people were invited to the police station for questioning, including: Nguyen Van Luom (35 years old, residing in Cau Ngang commune, Vinh Long province); Lu Thi Thu Trang (38 years old, residing in Ninh Kieu ward - the person living with Luom as husband and wife); Lu Quoc Phu (32 years old, Trang's younger brother) and two 15-year-old girls.

Luom is the leader and is also a drug user whose file has been kept by the Cau Ngang Commune Police. Meanwhile, Phu is the subject whose file has been taken away by the Ninh Kieu Ward Police.drug addiction treatment; two young women (including Trang's daughter) took on the role of transporting the children to breathe fire.

The above gang led 4 children who were brothers (aged 9-14, living in Vinh Long) to "spray fire".

According to the initial investigation, from 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. the next morning, Luom hired a number of people to take children to hold oil in their mouths and spit fire at drinking places on the streets of Tan An, Ninh Kieu, Cai Khe, An Binh, and Hung Phu wards to beg for money.

Phu and two 15-year-old girls regularly took the children to breathe fire. Luom assigned someone to supervise and stand at a distance while the children performed fire breathing and begged for money from the customers.

According to the police, Luom and the children were not related by blood. During the day, Luom had someone take the children to the Internet cafe to play games, and at night he took them to work. Luom said he raised the children to beg for money by spitting fire.

The money the children collected from spitting fire was confiscated by Luom and Trang. Depending on the amount of money collected each day, Luom divided it among the people who took the children to spit fire, on average each person was paid 200,000 VND/night. For the children, Luom gave them 50,000 - 100,000 VND per day to spend and play games.

Luom gives the children’s parents 12 million VND each month from the money he earns. The remaining money is kept by Luom and Trang. On average, Luom and his wife illegally profit from the fire-breathing of the children about 30 million VND each month.