The captain of the robber hunting team drives fast and is a good shooter.

SBC was the image of Ho Chi Minh City youth at that time and the nemesis of criminals when people rumored that SBC drove without speed limits, shot with a hundred shots and hit the target, and was full of martial arts.

That is also the image of Vo Tan Thanh, Hai Thanh, a street legend...

After 1975, criminal work was actually an armed war between criminal soldiers and gangs of murderers, robbers, kidnappers... Just look at the operating regulations of the SBC (Surveillance and Robbery) team to see how fierce the situation was in the early days after the liberation in 1975:

SBC team hunts down criminals.

“SBCs under 30 years old are allowed to run at full speed, enter restricted roads, run red lights, drive in the wrong direction, and if they encounter a wanted person who does not surrender, are allowed to shoot at the suspect after firing two warning shots.”

Yes, because the gangs always shoot first, the life of the SBC scout always hangs on the tip of the gun, whoever shoots faster will live.

But Hai Thanh always advocated safe control and limited shooting, and he almost died when doing this with bandit Sau Cau Bong Phan Ba ​​Y (who killed the gang leader Son Dao before 1975) who also shot officers when being chased.

However, despite having nearly died many times, Hai Thanh still persisted with this method.

Mr. Huynh Ba Thanh (Editor-in-Chief of Ho Chi Minh City Police Newspaper) admired Hai Thanh very much when he was alive but complained that he could not get much out of him because Hai Thanh was very secretive.

Not only a street legend, Hai Thanh is also a great inspiration for literature and cinema... when looking at the list of cases Hai Thanh solved: the kidnapping of artist Kim Cuong's child, the kidnapping of Doctor La Hi's child, the Thanh Nga case, Tin Ma Nam, Dien Khac Kim, Bong Hong Trang...

These are classic cases of the police industry.

SBC Captain Vo Tan Thanh.

SBC was born under the direct leadership of experienced police officers in internal, external, and armed work such as General Mai Chi Tho, Major General Trinh Thanh Thiep, Lieutenant Colonel Phan Thanh (Ba Tung) and their student and comrade Hai Thanh. They studied and developed it into new criminal perspectives such as propaganda work, grassroots network work, mass movements to protect national security...

The People's Security Academy C500 website dedicates a whole page to the police officer who is the idol of this police force.

“Comrade Thanh is often affectionately called Captain Hai Thanh by everyone, born in 1936, from Loc Thuan commune, Binh Dai district (Ben Tre).

Having gone through a difficult childhood, working as a hired hand herding buffaloes, ducks, and laborer. At the age of 11, Hai Thanh threw a grenade onto a French ship on the Cua Dai River, Ben Tre. At the age of 14, he joined the guerrillas.

In 1954, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the 307th Battalion. In October of that year, he boarded a train to the North. After 6 years of training and maturing in the army, in 1960, he was admitted to the Party and entered the Central Police School C500 (now the People's Security Academy), officially becoming a police officer.

After taking a crash course in espionage, in early 1975, he became deputy of a special mission of one hundred officers and soldiers to the South.

Two days after Saigon was liberated, he was appointed as the first Captain of the Criminal Police Department's Law Enforcement Team and Secretary of the department's Party Cell. When the Robbery Hunting Team was established, he was also appointed as the captain.

He and his teammates have achieved many outstanding feats. They are solving cases that shocked the public opinion in the country and internationally such as the kidnapping of the child of artist Kim Cuong, the Thanh Nga case, the kidnapping of the child of doctor La Hy; investigating the massacre at the house of Princess Mong Hoa, rescuing 11 children who were kidnapped and sold to the mountainous area of ​​Lam Dong, breaking up armed robbers such as the Vo Tung Hoi gang, Phu "Salem", the Thai Lap Thanh gang, the White Rose gang, chasing and capturing the notorious robbers Diem Khac Kim, Tin Ma Nam (Ma Nguu case)...

Vo Tan Thanh rescues a kidnapped girl.

In particular, the case of Nguyen Huu Dat raping and killing 9 beautiful girls (8 girls before liberation and 3 girls after liberation) and then burning their bodies to destroy the evidence. When the murderer killed the third girl in early March 1976, Captain Hai Thanh and his teammates overcame many hardships to find this lecherous murderer. During the times of "entering the tiger's den", he was beaten by criminals but he did not reveal that he was a policeman.

He firmly punished the stubborn, but always opened the way for repentant people to reform. His generosity and tolerance have transformed many dangerous criminals, gangsters, and prostitutes.

I was lucky to meet and have tea with Mr. Hai Thanh many times when he became the chief judge of Tan Binh District People's Court. He always mentioned the SBC team as a belief in the next generation of teammates.

In fact, as the first SBC (robbery hunting) captain, Hai Thanh trained excellent students in criminal justice for the police force...

In the 1990s, Mr. Huynh Ba Thanh asked me and writer Dam San to write a novel about the street legend Vo Tan Thanh. Mr. Hai Thanh politely refused and then met me privately: There are many things that are not allowed to be revealed. He always showed that he did not care about competing for fame and profit. He was willing to contribute to the revolution in any position.

Mr. Hai Thanh passed away at home in 2014 after retirement. If he knew today that SBC would be re-established, he would be very happy.

Hoang Linh

According to zing.vn