The 'hiding' trick during World Cup season of the boss of the 2,000 billion VND betting ring

In mid-2022, during the process of reconnaissance and application of technical measures in cyberspace, the Criminal Police Department (Ha Tinh Police) discovered that Nguyen Cong Anh (33 years old, residing in Thach My commune, Loc Ha district) and dozens of people in Thach Ha, Cam Xuyen, Nghi Xuan districts, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong... were operating a large-scale online football betting line across the country.

Investigation documents determined that Cong Anh worked as a bridge contractor, often participated in online gambling, and had a complicated relationship with "gangsters". In early 2018, he bought a Super Master level account (super general agent) to set up a gambling line with 5 levels: Super Master, Master, Agent, Member, and bettor. The scope of operation was in Ha Tinh, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong and many other provinces.

Suspects Cong Anh and Van Cong (second and third, from left), at the investigation agency. Photo:Police provided

Assisting Cong Anh in running the line is Tran Van Cong, 33 years old, living in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City. In addition, 6 other people, assigned to manage accounts from Master to Member level, are tasked with taking advantage of social relationships to attract people to participate in betting.

The line accepts all "bets" on domestic and international football matches. Anyone who wants to participate must register an account, use a password to access the system, deposit real money and be given from several hundred to thousands of virtual points to play. The amount of money bet on each match ranges from several million to hundreds of millions of dong. In order to attract customers, Cong Anh and Van Cong offer big "promotions", subordinates who get accounts from superiors do not have to pay in advance, or pay a small amount but enjoy high profits.

To conceal their whereabouts, Cong Anh and Van Cong only communicated with their subordinates and "henchmen" using social networking applications such as Telegram, Zalo, and Viber, always setting messages to be automatically deleted. Sharing accounts with subordinates or paying winnings and losses was usually done through a supporting intermediary. The group limited meetings with each other, constantly changing phone numbers and methods of transferring money to gamblers.

Cong Anh and his juniors often target matches in the English Premier League, Spain, and Champions League to attract "prey". In addition, this group always takes advantage of major tournaments such as the Euro or World Cup to "catch a big net", because they determine that at this time the number of players and money poured into betting is hundreds of times higher.

The task force developed a plan of action to arrest those involved in the betting ring.

Before the 2022 World Cup, the leaders met and planned to leave the area, "hide" in a secret place, avoiding scrutiny from the authorities. After a month, when the tournament ends, the bosses will return, still organizing betting but on a limited scale, hiding under the guise of a bridge contractor or a freelance worker working as a construction worker, porter...

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Phi Hai, Head of the Criminal Police Department (Ha Tinh Police) said that the network's server is located overseas and uses many layers of complex security. If the password is entered incorrectly many times, the account will be lost. In addition, the system is also set to automatically delete data after a certain period of time.

After several months, using many professional measures, high-tech detectives broke through the complex security layers of the Super Master account system owned by Cong Anh, building a complete profile of the boss, 7 subordinates and thousands of minions.

At the end of November, Ha Tinh Police coordinated with Binh Duong Police, mobilized hundreds of officers and soldiers, organized 8 teams, simultaneously raided the residences of the leaders of this gambling ring in Ha Tinh and Binh Duong, and arrested 8 people.

According to statistics, Cong Anh's super agent account has 1,825,000 points, equivalent to 73 billion VND. The total amount of money transacted for gambling from the time of operation until the time of destruction has accumulated about 2,000 billion VND.

Detectives search for clues of online gambling rings. Photo:Police provided

According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Phi Hai, the process of monitoring and deciding when to arrest the suspects encountered many difficulties because the suspects had complex lifestyles and constantly changed their residences. It took 7-10 hours for the authorities to complete data processing, classification, and expanding the investigation with the people involved.

"Cong Anh was confident that the line was secure and difficult for anyone to infiltrate, so he was surprised when he was caught. At first, the group resisted, gave little information, and refused to provide information about their gambling accounts and subordinates," said Lieutenant Colonel Hai.

In addition, when seeing the boss fall into the net, many of his henchmen canceled all accounts and deleted messages exchanging information related to online football betting. After two weeks of "testing courage" with the police, Cong Anh and his accomplices bowed their heads and confessed their crimes.

Currently, Cong Anh and Van Cong along with 6 others have been prosecuted, detained, and banned from leaving their place of residence by the authorities for the crime.GambleandGambling organization, according to articles 321 and 322 of the Penal Code.