The leader of a loan shark group in Nghe An once threatened to shoot the commune police chief.

Nghe An: Gang of loan sharks arrested for attacking people's houses with dirty substances and rat poison

(Baonghean.vn) - Within 2 months, Vuong and his followers continuously threw dirt, rat poison, and weed killer into a resident's house in Vinh City to terrorize him.

For over a year now, Mr. Nguyen Minh Q. (Khoa Da 3 hamlet, Hung Tay commune, Hung Nguyen) has not once met his son and his wife. For fear of being beaten, his son, Nguyen Le M. (36 years old), had to leave the country with his wife to avoid being hunted by a group of loan sharks.

“I don’t know where he is now. Sometimes I heard he escaped to the South, sometimes to the North, and sometimes to Laos. If my son borrowed money from someone, he must pay it back, but here we don’t know exactly how much he borrowed or what the interest rate is, but he has already paid 700 million VND and still hasn’t paid off the debt,” Mr. Q. said.

A group of loan sharks threw dirty substances at a resident's house in Hung Tay. Photo: HB

There was nothing valuable in the level 4 house. Mr. Q. said that since his son and his wife ran away, they had always lived in insecurity. Although his son graduated from university, he could not find a job and had to stay at home. Because of his idleness, his son was lured into partying, gambling and had to write a loan note.

“Even though I was very angry with my son, I still borrowed 700 million VND from the bank to pay off his debt. But after paying, many people came with papers and said that my son was still in debt and asked him to pay. He was so scared that he took his wife and ran away from home that night, leaving us to raise our two children,” Mr. Q. said.

When Mr. Q.'s son ran away, this group came to put pressure on the couple. As if to "free them", the couple agreed to cut off a 130m2 plot of land.²But the moneylenders require 200m²enough to pay the debt.

Nguyen Van Vuong, the leader of a loan shark gang. Photo: HB

Mr. M's creditor is Nguyen Van Vuong (31 years old, Hung Tay commune, Hung Nguyen) - the leader of the loan shark group that was recently detained by Vinh City Police along with many other juniors.

According to the reporter's investigation, Vuong, with 3 criminal records, has gathered dozens of followers under his command for many years. This group often lures people without stable jobs, who hang around in the community and gamble, and then forces them to sign debt papers for large sums of money. They operate recklessly, armed with guns, knives, and swords. When the debtors do not pay, they put pressure, threaten, throw dirty substances into the house, and terrorize them mentally.

In Hung Tay commune alone, there were at least 15 cases where Vuong’s gang forced them to write IOUs amounting to billions of dong. Of these, 8 had to flee their hometowns for fear of being beaten and retaliated by the gang.

One of Vuong's juniors is being held in criminal detention. Photo: HB

This gang often finds and invites unemployed people and then "pumps" them money to eat, drink, and party. After a while, they start inviting them to gamble and bet on football. When they run out of money, they lend them money to gamble.

“While sitting on the mat, they gave each person a stack of 1,000 and 2,000 VND bills, and the convention was that a 1,000 VND bill was worth 500,000 VND; a 2,000 VND bill was worth 1 million VND. After playing, the losers had to sign a loan contract, with an interest rate of 5,000 VND/1 million VND/day. If they didn’t pay on time, they would add interest, so the amount the borrower had to pay would get bigger and bigger,” said a person who borrowed money from Vuong’s group.

When borrowers failed to pay their debts on time, Vuong's gang began to plan debt collection using reckless methods. First, they would go to the debtor's house and use threatening words to demand payment. When the debtor had not paid, they would photocopy the debtor's photo and post it outside the gate, fence, and on the main roads to put pressure and terrorize them mentally by throwing dirt and rat poison into the house.

Another house was thrown over. Photo: HB

Families who could not pay their debts were forced to pay them with land. Victims who escaped were surrounded, taken into cars, and forced to sign large loan papers. Many people were so scared that they had to sell their land, assets, and borrow money from banks to pay back Vuong's gang. Many families had their happiness broken and their lives turned upside down because their husbands were in debt. The activities of this group caused fear, insecurity, and anger among the people of the commune, but no one dared to react for fear of retaliation.

Threatening to shoot the commune police

According to Hung Tay Commune Police, this group has repeatedly threatened to cut off the arms and legs of the Chief and Deputy Chief of Police of this commune. On October 22, 2016, Hung Tay Commune Police stopped two of Vuong's trusted juniors who were preparing to fight. The police confiscated four homemade knives and took both young men to the headquarters of Hung Tay Commune People's Committee for questioning. Upon hearing that his juniors were detained, Vuong immediately went to the government headquarters to insult and curse the commune police. He even pointed at the face of the Commune Police Chief and threatened, "If a commune police officer steps out of the committee gate or sets foot in Hung Dong ward, he will be shot."

Vuong has dozens of juniors under his command. Photo: HB

Once, Vuong's group even planned to lure the Deputy Police Chief of Hung Tay Commune to Ha Tinh, supposedly with the intention of beating him up as a "warning". However, the Deputy Police Chief promptly called his superiors to intervene, so there were no consequences.

A leader of Hung Tay commune said that Nguyen Van Vuong is a dangerous criminal, the leader of a gang operating in the area, with many relationships with subjects with criminal records inside and outside the province. Vuong has an attitude of contempt for the law, keeps weapons (such as guns, knives, swords, hammers...) in his car, and often commits illegal acts with his juniors, affecting security and order. Vuong has no stable job, no income from other legal sources, but still has many sources of money to build a house and buy luxury cars.

On November 7, 2017, while Mr. Vo Dinh Ph. was working in Nam Can commune (Ky Son), someone came to see him and asked him to get in a car. Mr. Ph. was then forced to sit between Vuong and his 3 juniors to go downstream. When they arrived at Con Cuong district, Vuong forced Mr. Ph. to sign a loan paper for 1.6 billion VND. Because he was afraid that his family would be beaten, this man reluctantly signed the loan paper. When he had the loan paper in hand, when they arrived at Quan Hanh town (Nghi Loc), Vuong let the victim go.

Police are taking Vuong's statement. Photo: HB

In addition, some cases committed by Vuong's group were recorded, reported by the commune police and transferred to Hung Nguyen District Police, showing that this group operates very recklessly. In September 2017, they went to Mr. Vo Dinh Trung's house (Khoa Da 3 hamlet, Hung Tay commune) to find his son to collect debt. After searching the house but not finding him, Vuong asked Mr. Trung to call his son back or he would kill him, and threatened to cut off his arms and legs if he caught him. In the following days, Mr. Trung's house was continuously thrown with dirty substances such as cooking oil, shrimp paste, fish sauce, and beer bottles.

Most recently, in February 2018, a group of young men from Hung Dao commune went to the house of Vuong's close associate, Ngo Manh Hoang, to resolve a conflict. There, the two sides fought and gunshots were heard. Hung Nguyen district police prosecuted and detained Ngo Manh Hoang to investigate the act of intentionally causing injury. However, somehow, Hoang later received a complaint from the victim.