Gangsters poured rat poison and threw dirty substances to threaten their opponents.

On November 28, the People's Court of Nghe An province brought the defendants Nguyen Van Vuong (born 1987), Nguyen Van Ngoc (born 1997), both residing in Hung Tay commune, Hung Nguyen district, and defendant Nguyen Van Thang (born 1992), residing in Nam Giang commune, Nam Dan, to trial for the crimes of "Disturbing public order" and "Extortion of property".

The three defendants Vuong, Ngoc, and Thang in court. Photo: Quynh An

According to the case file, between February and June 2018, Nguyen Van Luc (born in 1975), residing in Nghi Dong commune (Nghi Loc) and Vuong had a debt relationship and jointly contributed capital to Luc Lam Food Company Limited (abbreviated as Luc Lam Company) of which Luc was the director.

On July 16, 2018, Vuong "finalized" the amount of money he had lent Luc to be 1,030 billion VND. After finalizing the debt, the two sides agreed to let Luc be the director responsible for "output" while Vuong would be responsible for "finding input" and supplying goods for the company. During this time, Ngoc and Thang each contributed 100 million VND to Vuong to contribute capital to cooperate with Luc.

By August 2018, due to business conflicts, both Mr. Luc and Mr. Vuong had ended their cooperation with each other. On September 16, 2018, according to the debt repayment schedule, Mr. Vuong came to Mr. Luc's house to agree on the amount that Mr. Luc had to pay, which was 1,885 billion VND, including the goods price as well as the company's profits, with the payment deadline being October 16, 2018.

Although the payment deadline had not yet come, Vuong, Thang and Ngoc used many tricks such as: printing many flyers with pictures of Mr. Luc, his son and daughter, posting them in many public places such as churches, schools, etc. and sending threatening messages to Mr. Luc's family members. At the same time, they also blocked the delivery vehicles of Luc Lam Company, threatened and forced the drivers to quit their jobs, causing difficulties for business operations.

In particular, on October 16, 2018, Vuong, Ngoc, and Thang led a group of 40 people to threaten Mr. Luc's family. Defendant Ngoc hung banners and distributed leaflets with many insulting words about Mr. Luc's family and also used a loudspeaker to play funeral music. Thang used a used syringe to threaten him. Vuong used a burning incense stick to prick Mr. Luc's cheek, forcing him to pay VND 1,885 billion or transfer the company for VND 2 billion.

Not only that, in the process of forcing and threatening Mr. Luc to pay the debt, Vuong thought that Mr. Nguyen Van Luyen (Mr. Luc's younger brother) was the one who intervened and directed the debt repayment, so Vuong and his accomplices used "gangster" tricks to affect security and order around Mr. Luyen's house.

Specifically, from October 20, 2018 to December 15, 2018, Vuong, Ngoc and Thang went to Mr. Luyen's house 5 times to throw raw eggs at the gate, pour rat poison into the yard and walls of the house, and throw bottles and garbage, affecting the living environment.

During the process, many people stopped to watch. Vuong directed Thang to hold a brick and threaten the onlookers. The throwing of rotten eggs and herbicides made Mr. Luyen's family panic, disrupted the lives of the people around them, and disturbed security and order.

At the trial, the defendants showed remorse and admitted that their actions were wrong. The panel sentenced Nguyen Van Vuong to 6 years in prison for "Extortion" and 2 years in prison for "Disturbing public order", for a total of 8 years in prison.

Defendant Nguyen Van Ngoc was sentenced to 5 years in prison for "Extortion" and 1 year and 6 months in prison for "Disturbing public order", totaling 6 years and 6 months in prison. As for defendant Nguyen Van Thang, he was sentenced to a total of 6 years in prison, including 5 years for "Extortion" and 1 year for "Disturbing public order".