Identifying the notorious "younger brothers" of drug lord Nguyen Thanh Tuan
While his juniors received death sentences one by one, drug lord Nguyen Thanh Tuan remained entrenched in his lair and continued to operate large drug rings.
Being wanted by the Investigation Police Agency, the Ministry of Public Security and the Quang Ninh Provincial Police for being especially dangerous, Nguyen Thanh Tuan (also known as Trang, residing in Lat village, Yen Trung, Thach That, Hanoi), the "boss" of many transnational drug rings, fled to Ta De village, Lung Xa, Long Luong commune, Van Ho district (Son La) to set up a "headquarters".
Here, Tuan still directed many dangerous drug lines, supplying "goods" to drug dealers in the Northern region, and at the same time gathered more followers who were wanted criminals from other places.
On June 27 and 28, Son La Provincial Police coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security's professional units to mobilize more than 200 officers and soldiers to fight and destroy a group of subjects with many especially dangerous wanted decisions for the crime of illegal drug trafficking. The subjects used weapons to fight back fiercely.
The notorious underlings of the "boss"
Tuan has many juniors under his command, all of whom are notorious criminals who have been sentenced to death. One of them is Nguyen Quoc Hung (born 1983, Thai Binh). Hung once confessed: Due to business losses, in June 2015, he asked someone to take him to Tuan to ask for a loan. Having received 150 million VND from the "boss", Hung became Tuan's junior. Tuan equipped his juniors with Fortuner cars to travel and transport drugs.
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| Hung and evidence of the case. |
On the afternoon of July 22, 2015, Tuan sent someone to Hung's house to deliver 3 gas cylinders, 2 pistols, 2 long guns and 4 grenades. At around 10pm, Tuan called Hung to bring the 3 gas cylinders to Thang Long Avenue, Hanoi to deliver to the customer. Receiving orders from the "boss", Hung obediently carried the 3 gas cylinders containing drugs to the Fortuner car to deliver to the customer. At around 11pm, Tuan called Hung to inform him that the customer did not come to receive them, so he told Hung to take the drugs home to hide.
The next morning, Tuan called Hung and told him to bring a gas cylinder to Thanh Tri bridge to deliver to the customer. Tuan gave Hung the phone number of the drug recipient to contact.
The person waiting to receive drugs at Thanh Tri bridge is a person who is"Monster" Dang Minh Chau hired someone to transport it to Lang Son, then brought it to China for Chau.
When the subjects arrived at Phu Dong Bridge, Gia Lam, Hanoi to prepare to deliver drugs, they were checked and arrested by the authorities, confiscating 170 cakes of drugs contained in gas cylinders. Further investigation, the police determined that Hung had illegally traded 490 cakes of heroin. In April 2017, Hung was sentenced to death by the Hanoi People's Court.
After being arrested, in early November 2015, Dang Minh Chau continued to call Nguyen Thanh Tuan to buy 80 heroin cakes, at a price of 192 million VND/cake. To carry out this drug trafficking plan, Tuan told Nguyen Van Tinh (born in 1989, in Lap Thanh village, Dong Xuan commune, Quoc Oai district, Hanoi) to rent a house in Hanoi to use as a warehouse to hide heroin, disguised as a warehouse to store candy.
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| Tinh was handcuffed and brought to court during his trial for escaping from detention. |
After renting a house to hide the drugs, Tuan gave Chau Tinh's phone number to receive the heroin. Chau called Tinh and hired a truck to transport candy to the location so Tinh could unload the candy and put it in the warehouse. The next morning, Tuan sent his men to Hanoi by car carrying 80 heroin cakes. Tuan hid the heroin in the spare tire of his Fortuner, then called Tinh to transport the drugs to the warehouse, slash the car tire, take out 80 heroin cakes and hide them among the candy boxes. Tinh then transferred the drugs to Chau's men.
Based on the documents and evidence collected in the case file, there is sufficient basis to conclude that Dang Minh Chau, Nguyen Van Tinh and other subjects illegally bought and sold 80 heroin cakes. For this act, Tinh received the death sentence in April 2017. While being detained at the T16 Detention Center of the Ministry of Public Security, on the night of September 10, Tinh and death row inmate Le Van Tho (Tho Sut, 37 years old, residing in Hamlet 6, Thuy Lam Village, Thanh Son Commune, Thanh Ha District, Hai Duong) escaped from detention. Both death row inmates were recaptured later. For the crime of escaping from detention, Tinh received an additional 7 years in prison.
Another junior of the “boss” Nguyen Thanh Tuan is Tran Duc Duy (born 1986, from Hoa Binh). Around the end of February 2014, Tuan assigned him the task of going to Moc Chau to receive 80 heroin cakes to deliver to a subject in Cao Bang, at a price of 210 million VND/cake. Tuan informed that the heroin was at the house of a Mong person named Nhong, near the old forest area and gave his junior Nhong’s phone number so that when Duy arrived by car, he could call Nhong to deliver the heroin.
Nhong guided Duy to a shack. Duy turned the car around and parked close to the shack so Nhong could open the trunk himself and put the pineapple sack containing 80 heroin cakes into the car.
Before delivering the heroin, Tuan promised to pay each of his underlings 300 million VND. The deal was successful, Duy took 7 million VND in advance to spend, and left the rest for Tuan to keep. Arrested and brought to trial, in March 2017, Duy was sentenced to death by the People's Court of Hoa Binh province.
