The story of the 'wanted soldier' ​​of Nghe An police force

Journey of "looking for a needle in a haystack"

After many appointments, recently, we met two of the "nemeses" of wanted criminals. They are Lieutenant Colonel Bien Viet Chien, Captain Vu Vinh Quynh... of the Wanted and Search Team, of the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Police.

Flipping through the wanted files, Lieutenant Colonel Bien Viet Chien, who has nearly 20 years of experience in wanted work and is currently the captain of the Wanted and Search Team of the Criminal Police Department, remembers clearly each subject with the search and capture operations that were likened to "searching for a needle in a haystack". For example, the search for Nguyen Van Ke (born in 1967, residing in Nghia Hoan commune, Tan Ky district), a fugitive for 26 years, who committed the crime of destroying national security works and consuming property obtained by others through criminal acts.

Authorities receive the wanted suspect from Lao authorities. Photo courtesy

For 26 years, the Criminal Police Department has organized a search but without results. Many times, detectives went to the family to persuade and verify the relationships of the subject, but Ke. never contacted home, nor did he return to the locality once. Therefore, the subject's whereabouts are still a mystery. However, after many search efforts, using professional measures, since the end of 2018, the authorities have determined that Ke is hiding in the Central Highlands.

Since then, the Criminal Police Department has coordinated with the police of the Central Highlands provinces to screen and search for information about the subject. By early August 2019, after zoning and identifying the subject hiding in Easuk district, Dak Lak province, Project 967T was established.

Lieutenant Colonel Bien Viet Chien said: In order to prevent the subject from having more opportunities to escape, the team had to move continuously, almost without rest. When approaching the area, although it was determined that the subject had a relative from the same hometown, Dien Phuc, Dien Chau, at this time the subject had changed his name, got married, and had 4 children.

However, by professional measures, the force verified that this was Ke. On August 26, the wanted group coordinated with local units to arrest him. At this time, with undeniable evidence, the subject had to confess that he was Nguyen Van Ke, the wanted subject, to the surprise of relatives, neighbors, and friends.

Subjects Nguyen Van Ke and Tran Ngoc Phuong. Documentary photo

In another journey of 4,000 km without a minute of rest for 4 days and nights, Captain Vu Vinh Quynh, a wanted officer, said that it was the pursuit of Tran Ngoc Phuong (born in 1965, residing in Dien Xuan, Dien Chau) for murder and resisting law enforcement officers. Specifically, since 2000, the authorities have repeatedly verified, arrested, and persuaded the subject to surrender but to no avail. 12 years have passed, but the tragic death of Private Vu Van Quang still haunts those working on the wanted list.

In early October 2012, the provincial police wanted force received information that Tran Ngoc Phuong with a fake name was hiding in U Tham Phon district, Xa Van Na Khet province (Laos), under the cover of the owner of a forest product production and processing enterprise. The verification work was quickly carried out and concluded that this was Tran Ngoc Phuong, the fugitive for the past 12 years.

At 4am on October 22, 2012, the special task force departed from Vinh City and arrived in the neighboring country at 2pm. At this time, they received information that Phuong was in Northern Laos, 150km from the capital Vientiane. The task force decided to turn back towards Northern Laos. As if sensing imminent danger, Phuong drove back to U Tham Phon. That same night, the task force turned back and traveled 600km back to U Tham Phon following the hot trail of the subject.

However, the area where Phuong was hiding was a dangerous, mountainous area that was too unfamiliar to the working group, while the subject always had guards, carrying hot weapons. The plan was to wait for the subjects to be negligent to approach the prey, and it was not until 3:00 a.m. on October 24, 2012 that Phuong appeared at a rented room in Xi No. The siege was gradually tightened and then suddenly controlled, causing the subject to be taken into custody. Phuong was surprised and tried to resist, thinking that the working group had arrested the wrong person. However, with undeniable evidence, Tran Ngoc Phuong had to bow his head and accept being handcuffed.

There are many other typical cases and special cases that the wanted force has solved in the past time. During those difficult and arduous trips, sometimes the working group was almost at the destination when they were "disturbed" and the subject fled to another place. However, with perseverance, the work of tracking the subject and the area was still continued.

Therefore, in 2019 alone, the force captured 60 wanted criminals, successfully solved 10 special cases, and investigated many extremely serious criminals, some of whom had been on the run for over 20 years.

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The "attributes" associated with fugitive criminals are that most of them come up with many schemes to create new covers or escape far away, are cunning and crafty when being "targeted", and when being caught, they fight back frantically.

Not to mention, the pursuit in border areas is even more difficult, because the subjects have complex relationships across the border and can flee abroad. Meanwhile, the search force is still thin, the coordination between countries in the search work, especially countries that have not signed the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement, leads to difficulties in extradition...

Therefore, we determined that the "best policy" is still to mobilize, appeal, and psychologically influence them to voluntarily surrender. This is considered a key measure. Accordingly, with perseverance, the brothers doing the wanted person work always pay attention to learning about the family situation, combine writing letters to appeal, mobilize people who have blood relations with the subject to influence, influence, both appeal to the psychology of homesickness, desire for a normal life, and analyze the pros and cons based on the provisions of current law.

Lieutenant Colonel Vu Quoc Bao - Deputy Head of Criminal Police Department

For example, the case of VVH (born in 1964, from Muong Xen town, Ky Son district) - a fugitive who caused the reconnaissance force to lose a lot of time and effort. Because since the police investigation agency issued a nationwide wanted notice in 1998, H. has never once returned home to visit or contact his relatives. Therefore, information about H. is very vague and difficult to determine.

4 out of 6 wanted subjects were arrested by the search team in the Southern provinces and the Central Highlands and brought back to Nghe An on the evening of August 30, 2019. Photo: Anh Quan

However, through professional measures, the authorities learned that because H. had lived along the border for a long time, he was familiar with the roads and had fled through the forest and streams to Laos. After that, H. changed his name, obtained Lao nationality, got married and lived under the cover of a businessman selling construction materials.

Because VVH knew many criminals, combined with his high vigilance, many times the detectives tried to approach and verify but failed. With the determination to bring H. back to justice, the detectives began to approach more of H.'s brothers, wife and children who were currently living in Ky Son. After a process of persuasion, H.'s older brother agreed to persuade his younger brother to return and surrender. However, persuading a person who had been on the run for more than 26 years, had a new family and a stable life was not easy.

During his stay in Laos, H.'s brother told him about his mother, who is now over 90 years old, in poor health, and has been worrying about her errant son for 26 years. Her wish before returning to her ancestors was to see her son again. Hearing this, H. cried like a child and hugged him. After that, H. agreed to return to Vietnam to surrender, on the condition that he could stop by her house and visit his mother.

A wanted person is handed over to local police. Photo: Khanh Van

According to Lieutenant Colonel Bao, in many cases, mobilizing the subjects to serve their sentences also helps them escape from the mental tragedy when they often have to live in a state of insecurity, fear, and have a family but cannot return. That is the case of subject N.D.D. (born in 1991, residing in Quynh Xuan ward, Hoang Mai town). For the crime of illegal drug use, he escaped when Hoang Mai town police released him on bail.

Knowing that the subject was lured, committing a crime for the first time, the family was in difficulty because the father died early in a work accident, and the mother had to work as a maid to raise 4 children. The wanted officers secretly approached and influenced family members, directly D.'s mother, to analyze the pros and cons. Many times, they even visited her when she was sick. Understanding the goodwill of the police force, the mother cooperated and advised D. to take a bus from Bac Ninh to return so that she could do ideological work, after which D. voluntarily surrendered.

It can be seen that the job of wanted persons is full of hardships and difficulties, but for them, once they are "in love" with the job, it is not simply a task, but a responsibility, because one more wanted person surrendering not only reduces one worry for society, but also builds trust, helping them make efforts to reform so that they can soon return to reunite with their families and become useful people.