Changed name, changed surname, escaped for nearly 12 years in Laos but still arrested

(Baonghean.vn) - When he was handcuffed, Tac still denied in Lao that he was not the fugitive that the police were looking for.

The Criminal Investigation Police Department (PC52, Provincial Police) has handed over Luong Van Tac (born in 1988, residing in Pha Danh commune, Ky Son district) to the Drug Crime Investigation Police Department to resume investigation and handle according to authority.

Tac has been a fugitive for nearly 12 years after a drug trafficking ring from Laos to Vietnam was busted in 2005. At that time, Tac was just 17 years old, but with his "seniority" in drug trafficking, Tac was assigned the task of directly dealing with Laotian subjects, taking drugs to Do Luong to sell to his henchmen.

Subject Luong Van Tac. Photo provided by the police

While many subjects were arrested, Tac quickly escaped, then went to Laos to live in seclusion despite the police's pursuit. After that, the police investigation agency issued a nationwide wanted notice for Luong Van Tac.

The search for Tac's whereabouts was very difficult and at times seemed to be at a dead end. Because the subject lived in seclusion, no other information was revealed. Apart from the photo and the identity card, the wanted agency did not have any solid clues about the subject's whereabouts.

Captain Phan Minh Loc - Team Leader of Team 4, PC52 Department, one of the people assigned to hunt down Tac, said that Tac still occasionally returned home to visit, but every time the wanted agency made a move to arrest him, he always escaped inexplicably. Many times the wanted agency even mistook Tac for his younger brother because the two brothers had quite similar faces.

Before the Lunar New Year 2017, the scouts reported that Tac was living in Vientiane (Laos). Realizing that this was a reliable source of information, a scout team immediately went to Laos to search for Tac. However, the search was not simple because the further they went, the less information about Tac became.

Just when the trip seemed to be a failure, the reconnaissance team finally received information that in Phon Thon village, Pac Ka Dinh district, Bo Ly Kham Xay province (Laos), there was a subject with many identifying features similar to the photo of the village. The reconnaissance team immediately set off.

Here, after checking the household registration book and temporary residence registration book, there was no one named Luong Van Tac. The detectives immediately changed direction, looking for information through drug addicts in the area and discovered a subject who looked very similar to Tac, and that person's name was Kham My. Notably, both of them had a mole on their left lip.

According to information provided by local authorities, Kham My has been living in Phon Thon village since around 2007, currently has a wife and 2 children. Kham My is Vietnamese and that name was only given after settling in Laos. Continuing to verify, the detectives obtained extremely important information that, before going to Laos, Kham My's name was Tac.

From the information collected and secret identification, the detectives have grounds to confirm that Kham My is the drug criminal Luong Van Tac that the police have been searching for for a long time.

After receiving the report from the reconnaissance team, PC52 set up a special project to capture Luong Van Tac. At noon on April 18, while Tac was sitting in a tea shop at the beginning of the village, the police suddenly appeared. Even though he saw the Vietnamese police, Tac still kept a calm face and kept saying “Bồ hu, Bồ hu” (don’t know – PV).

“When Tac was brought to the Pac Ka Dinh District Police Station, he kept saying “Bô hu” and only answered in Lao, not Vietnamese. We had to read out Tac’s family tree before he bowed his head and admitted his guilt,” said Captain Loc.

Soon after, Luong Van Tac was brought back to Vietnam. At the wanted agency, Tac confessed that he had been a fugitive for many years and that his wife and children had never known about the incident.

Nguyen Hung