Busting a drug ring from Hanoi to Vinh for consumption

(Baonghean.vn) - To distract the police, Tuan brought his wife and children, while Minh went to Vinh by plane and received the money in advance. However, the cunning tricks did not escape the eyes of the authorities.

In early 2016, through information from the public, Vinh City Police received information about Tran Thi Tam (born in 1973, residing in Cua Nam Ward, Vinh City) who had many suspicious signs of illegal drug trafficking. In particular, Tam often went to Hanoi and returned very quickly, and showed many unusual signs in her daily life.

Detectives from the anti-drug police team (Vinh City Police) were assigned to gather information about Tam's activities. Through that, it was known that Tran Thi Tam was a subject who had been sentenced to life in prison for the crime of illegal drug trafficking. Due to her good rehabilitation, Tam's sentence was reduced to 20 years in prison. Having just completed her prison term, Tam showed signs of connecting with subjects outside the province to bring drugs to Vinh for consumption.

The subjects arrested in Project 616 M

Realizing that the information from the people was correct, in early January 2016, Vinh City Police decided to establish a special project codenamed 616M to fight and destroy the drug. Detective teams were assigned to monitor Tam's every move.

Through monitoring, it was found that Tam often went to Hanoi to contact Dinh Thi Tuyet Minh (born in 1967, residing in Phuong Mai ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi). In 1997, the Hanoi People's Court sentenced Tuyet Minh to 15 years in prison for illegal drug trafficking, completing her prison sentence in 2013. In addition, Tuyet Minh also had two other previous convictions and was known as a notorious drug dealer.

According to Minh's information, Tuyet Minh often contacted Hoang Thi Ngoan (born in 1959, residing in Phu Dong commune, Gia Lam, Hanoi) and Hoang Mau Tuan (born in 1967, residing in Phu Dong commune, Gia Lam district, Hanoi). Ngoan and Tuan are two sisters, showing many suspicious signs, often going to China to buy drugs to sell in Vietnam.

After the monitoring process, using professional measures, the detectives determined that on June 20, the subjects would bring drugs into Vinh City for consumption at a price of about 400 million VND. Realizing the opportunity, the Task Force made a plan to solve the case and arrest the subjects.

After agreeing on the plan and delivery location, Dinh Thi Tuyet Minh bought a plane ticket to Vinh City first. When she arrived, Minh took a taxi to Tam's house in block 11, Cua Nam ward (Vinh City). At Tam's house, she gave Minh 400 million VND in goods and very quickly after that, each person went their separate ways. Tuyet Minh rode her motorbike to Duoc market (Cua Nam ward) and stopped on the side of the road.

While Tuyet Minh was traveling by plane, Hoang Mau Tuan and Hoang Thi Ngoan also departed from Hanoi to Vinh City by car with license plate 29A 26151. To mislead the authorities, Tuan took his wife and children along as if he was going on a trip.

When entering Vinh City, reaching Duoc market, Tuan stopped the car. Although Tuan recognized Dinh Thi Tuyet Minh, he did not stop but continued to drive around in circles many times to scout the force as well as to distract the authorities.

After driving around several times to see if they were being followed, Tuan stopped the car at the place where Minh was waiting. Hoang Thi Ngoan opened the door, got out of the car, and carried a handbag, walking towards where Minh was standing, while Tuan continued driving the car to another place.

Seized exhibits

It is believed that Hoang Thi Ngoan's handbag contained drugs for sale, however the investigation team is still waiting for a more favorable opportunity. Dinh Thi Tuyet Minh left her motorbike at the market and walked on the road towards Tam's house.

“To ensure the safety of the people as well as to capture all four subjects, the task force considered that the subjects might use cars to endanger passersby. Therefore, when conducting the arrest, the working groups must act at the same time to avoid “pulling the trigger and disturbing the forest”, a scout in the task force shared.

When the opportunity was ripe, the Task Force decided to control and arrest Minh and Ngoan while they were walking, confiscating 1.4 kg in their luggage and 400 million VND; at the same time, another task force arrested Hoang Mau Tuan while he was driving, confiscating the car and cell phone, and a third task force raided his home and arrested Tam.

At the investigation agency, the subjects confessed to buying drugs from China to sell for profit. Hoang Mau Tuan personally went to get the goods and connected with the subjects to bring them to Nghe An for consumption. According to the investigators in the project, the difficulty in the project was that the subjects were extremely sophisticated, using many different means of transportation, often changing the way of delivery, delivering the goods to one place, and delivering the money to another.

To avoid exposure, the subjects often trade over the phone, and when transporting, they often do not travel together, using many different means of transportation to avoid being monitored by the authorities.

Nguyen Hung