The criminal path of the border "forest ghost"

Lau Ba Tong was born and raised in Nam Khien village, Nam Can commune, Ky Son district, so he is very familiar with the terrain on both sides of the Vietnam - Laos border. Therefore, Tong was hired by drug lords to illegally transport drugs.

In mid-November 2017, scouts from the Nghe An Border Guard discovered a drug trafficking ring from across the border to Vietnam for consumption. This ring was directly transported by young people who had illegally crossed the border to Laos.

Subject Lau Ba Tong. Photo: Hai Thuong

Determining the complexity of the case, it was determined that the ring involved Mong people who had illegally crossed the border from Vietnam to Laos, were familiar with the terrain, and had family relationships on both sides of the border. The Provincial Border Guard Command established Project 336L to investigate and verify.

Many scouts were sent to key areas in Tuong Duong and Ky Son districts and areas bordering Vietnam and Laos. They focused on subjects who frequently crossed the border secretly.

The biggest difficulty for the Task Force is that the area stretches from Vietnam to Laos, and the mountainous terrain is difficult, so collecting information about the subjects related to this network is not without difficulty.

After many days of trekking through the forest, the reconnaissance teams collected a lot of important information and documents related to this network. The subjects related to this network were identified as Lau Ba Tong. Tong brought his wife and children across the border to Laos in 2014, and now resides in Kha Ma village, Vieng Thoong district, Polykhamsay province, Laos.

Speaking more about Lau Ba Tong, because he brought his wife and children to illegally migrate to Laos, life faced many difficulties. Besides, because the Lao government strictly controlled and banned deforestation, Lau Ba Tong's family's life became even more miserable.

At the end of October 2017, while going to the district town, Tong happened to meet some men from Xieng Khouang province (Laos). These people pretended to be merchants looking for people to transport goods and promised to help Tong find a job, creating income to cover his living expenses.

These people will establish a drug trafficking line from Laos to Vietnam for consumption through Nghe An, in which Tong will be in charge of transporting the goods. The rules of operation are that the subjects will buy drugs from the Golden Triangle area to Laos and then hand them over to Tong, who is familiar with the mountainous terrain, to cut through the forest to transport them to Vietnam for consumption.

On January 22, three men in a pickup truck appeared at Tong's house carrying a travel bag containing a large amount of drugs. The drugs were handed over to Tong to transport to Nghe An for a fee of 16 million Lao kip, equivalent to 43 million VND. To create trust for Tong to cooperate long-term, the partners paid Tong the full amount of the initial agreement.

Receiving goods from a partner, to avoid the authorities, Lau Ba Tong gave all the wages to his wife to keep, and put the drugs in the pockets of his jacket and carried them with him. Tong brought a knife and a cell phone, pretended to be a farmer and crossed the border to infiltrate Nghe An.

The evidence is 6 heroin cakes and a knife. Photo: Hai Thuong

However, the scouts were aware of all of Tong's movements. The scouts determined that Tong would cut through the forest to bring drugs into his hometown, Nam Khien village, Nam Can commune, Ky Son district, then cut through the forest to Highway 7A and continue to take a truck downstream to deliver the goods.

As predicted by the Task Force, on the night of January 25, information was reported that the subject would bring goods across the border into Nam Can commune to deliver drugs. The requirement for the Task Force was to closely monitor all movements of the subject on the way to have a suitable capture plan, while ensuring the element of secrecy, because in Nam Khien village, the subject still has many relatives and neighbors living.

After arriving at Nam Khien village, Tong stopped to listen to the situation and think of a way to move next. After not discovering any unusual situation, Tong continued to cut through the forest towards Highway 7A to catch a bus downstream.

But Lau Ba Tong's delivery was not carried out as planned. At 5:00 a.m. on January 25, at km 38 of National Highway 7A in Ang village, Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong district, Na Ngoi Border Guard Station coordinated with the Drug and Crime Prevention Department, Nam Can Border Guard Station and the Drug Crime Prevention Control Team of Nghe An Customs Department to successfully break the 366L case and arrest Lau Ba Tong.

Evidence collected at the scene included 6 heroin cakes, 1 sharp knife, 1 phone and many other related evidence.