Woman charged with selling 14-year-old girl to China.

On December 9th, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police announced that they have initiated a criminal case, indicted the suspect, and detained Lang Thi Lien (born in 1984, residing in Mau Duc commune, Con Cuong district, Nghe An province) for 4 months on charges of "buying and selling children".

Lang Thi Lien was arrested by the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police on November 23rd, after returning to Vietnam from China to visit her seriously ill father.

The suspect, Lang Thi Lien. Photo provided by the police.

Previously, in 2013, Lien went to China and married a man there. After living there for a while, Lien returned to her hometown and sought out naive girls to trick and sell into prostitution in China.

In early 2017, Lien went to the home of Ms. Lo Thi D. (born in 1981, residing in Binh Chuan commune, Con Cuong district). Ms. D. had a daughter, Luong Thi M. (born in 2003), who was growing up well, so Lien struck up a conversation and offered to take M. to China with her. In return, this woman would pay M.'s parents 80 million VND, not including M.'s monthly salary.

Lien promised that when M. went to China, she would have a comfortable life, only needing to look after her younger siblings and help with a few chores around the house.

Because M. was no longer attending school and the family was facing financial difficulties, Ms. D. agreed to let her child go to China with Lien.

On January 17, 2017, Lien took M. to Mong Cai (Quang Ninh province) and then illegally crossed the border into China. Lien sold M. to a man in Hebei province (China) for 70,000 yuan. After selling M., Lang Thi Lien sent 80 million VND to the child's family and informed them that the child had married a Chinese man.

Upon hearing that her daughter had been sold, Ms. Lo Thi D. tried everything to contact her but failed. Knowing that Ms. Vi Thi T. (born in 1978, residing in Con Cuong district) had previously been to China and was familiar with the area, Ms. D. asked Ms. T. to go to China to bring her daughter M. back home.

When they found M. at her husband's house, T. took her and hid. After running about 5km, M. and T. were caught again. Lien called T.'s husband and demanded that he bring 110,000 yuan to China to ransom M., otherwise she would "cut off his heels."

Ms. D.'s family reported the incident to the police, and subsequently, Luong Thi M. and Ms. Vi Thi T. were rescued by the police in coordination with the Blue Dragon organization and brought back to Vietnam.