Nghe An: Police arrest gang of motorcycle thieves after months of surveillance.
A gang of eight individuals with numerous previous convictions and criminal records, who committed over 20 motorcycle thefts and smuggled the stolen vehicles abroad for sale using highly sophisticated methods, has been dismantled and apprehended by the Criminal Police Department and the Vinh Hung Ward Police, in a joint operation with relevant units.
The police identified Nguyen Van Dai (born in 1998) and Bui Quang Vinh (born in 1999), both residing in Hoa Quan commune, Nghe An province, as the ringleaders of the group. Notably, both Dai and Vinh have prior convictions for fraud and are drug addicts.
In order to obtain money to buy drugs for personal use and expenses, Nguyen Van Dai and Bui Quang Vinh recruited and gathered many unsavory individuals, including relatives and people from the same hometown as Dai and Vinh, such as Tran Dinh Canh (born in 2000), residing in Dai Dong commune, Nghe An province, and Nguyen Nhu Duc (born in 2001), residing in Hoa Quan commune, Nghe An province, to commit motorcycle theft.
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Every day, the suspects split into pairs, riding motorcycles with fake license plates to apartment complexes, boarding houses, restaurants, etc., taking advantage of the carelessness of vehicle owners to steal property. During the commission of the crime, the suspects assigned someone to act as a lookout, and the time taken to break the lock and steal the vehicle was only from 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Also related to the aforementioned gang, the police determined that after being stolen, the motorcycles would be sold to individuals residing in Nghe An province, including Nguyen Van Kien (born in 1997), residing in Dien Chau commune; Nguyen Khoi Nguyen (born in 2009), residing in Tan Ky commune; Pham Huy Hoang (born in 2006), residing in Vinh Loc ward; and Tran Bao Long (born in 2004), residing in Dai Dong commune, for resale. Notably, to evade law enforcement, after purchasing the motorcycles from the above individuals, Kien, Long, Nguyen, and Hoang colluded with several people in the area and acquaintances across the border to smuggle the vehicles abroad for sale.
Recognizing this as a professional gang involved in theft and the sale of stolen property, with the participation of numerous individuals and responsible for many thefts that caused public outrage, the Criminal Police Department established a special case and concentrated its forces and resources to combat it.
After a period of surveillance and the application of professional measures, from August 21 to 28, 2025, the Criminal Police Department and the Vinh Hung Ward Police, in coordination with the Command Information Center, the professional departments of the Provincial Police, and the police of Trung Loc, Phuc Loc, Kim Lien, and Hoa Quan communes, successfully cracked a case, arresting 8 suspects for theft and receiving stolen property.
The evidence seized in the case included: 16 motorcycles, 10 mobile phones, 5 fake license plates, 10 ATM accounts, and other related items used in motorcycle theft.
At the investigative agency, the suspects initially confessed that from June 2025 until the time of their arrest, they had committed 21 motorcycle thefts in various communes of Nghe An province, with a total value of over 350 million VND (many cases were not reported by the victims). The police also verified and identified 20 victims, and recovered and returned 16 motorcycles to the victims.
The Criminal Police Department has issued a decision to temporarily detain eight individuals on charges of theft and receiving stolen property for further investigation into the case.
