Van Kinh Duong - the prisoner who escaped from prison and became the boss of ecstasy production

Before becoming the leader of a drug production gang, driving around in supercars with hot girls every day... Duong was an addict, a thief, escaped from prison and was wanted internationally.

"Since his arrest, Duong has shown himself to be a cunning person, often not actively confessing his actions but only admitting to what we have provided with specific evidence," said an investigator about Van Kinh Duong (36 years old, living in Hanoi) - the leader of the country's largest drug production line who was recently arrested by Ho Chi Minh City Police.

Not only supplying ecstasy and crystal meth to all provinces and cities, Duong's gang is also suspected of selling drugs abroad.

According to police records, Duong has a registered residence in Dong Xuan ward (Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi). When he was young, he often gathered to drug and had to go to drug rehabilitation centers many times.

At the age of 19, while resolving a conflict with a knife, Duong injured his opponent and was sentenced to prison. After being released from prison without a job, he wandered around robbing and continued to "enter prison".

Duong Van Kinh and his juniors are sitting drinking coffee.

In 2008, Duong participated in a drug trafficking ring in the Northern region. When the police busted him, he received 6 years in prison. During his time in Thanh Lam prison (under General Department 8, Ministry of Public Security), Duong shared a room with 3 other prisoners from the same hometown in Hanoi. Among them was Ma Thanh Phuong (46 years old) - serving a 30-year prison sentence for many dangerous crimes.

In early October 2010, this group of prisoners was transferred to Cau Cao Detention Center (Thanh Hoa Provincial Police) to await trial for their involvement in another case. Taking advantage of the prison guards' negligence, Duong, Phuong and the other two prisoners sawed through the iron bars of the ventilation window, climbed over the barbed wire fence and escaped.

Thanh Hoa provincial police mobilized 600 police officers, along with sniffer dogs, to search for them day and night. After a while, the two prisoners were recaptured, but Duong and Phuong disappeared without a trace and were wanted internationally. Police suspected that they had fled to China illegally.

However, Duong still lived in Hanoi, together with his wife Nguyen Thi Phuc (31 years old, from Thai Nguyen) participating in the North-South drug ring led by Hoang Phuong Lam (38 years old). In this ring, Duong and his wife were important links. In April 2012, the Ministry of Public Security dismantled this ring, and Duong escaped once again, leaving no trace.

After forging an ID card, driver's license, and passport under the name Tran Van Hieu, Duong lived comfortably in Saigon.

At the end of 2016, detectives discovered that Duong had left the country for China many times. He gathered a number of relatives and friends to establish a closed ecstasy and crystal meth production line.

Many batches of goods were made by Duong and sent to the northern provinces for consumption. Sometimes the drugs were shipped back to the south under the label "imported from China" so many dealers did not know that Duong was the manufacturer.

With a huge income from drugs, Duong quickly became a tycoon in Saigon. Although he owns several villas and luxury apartments in Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang..., Duong spends hundreds of millions of dong each month to rent a villa of more than 200 square meters on Nguyen Du Street (District 1) for convenient travel.

He lives as husband and wife with hot girl Vu Hoang Anh Ngoc (Ngoc Miu - has acted with famous singers in many MVs) and has a child over one year old.

Duong and the escaped prisoners in Thanh Hoa. Photo: CA

With 7 cars in hand, Duong only kept the McLaren supercar (worth tens of billions of VND) and Lexus 570 in the apartment for his own use, the rest were given to his juniors as means of transaction. To ensure confidentiality, the "boss" did not let Ngoc Miu live with him but rented a luxury apartment in District 5 for her to live with a few juniors.

Every day, Duong and his lover go to bars and luxury nightclubs to learn about customers' preferences in order to prepare ecstasy and meth to their liking. He rarely parties with his followers, and mainly runs the network via Zalo and Viber.

Although the amount of pre-made drug powder was produced regularly by his cousin Nguyen Duc Ky Nam (49 years old), only when there was a customer ordering a specific quantity would Duong order his junior Pham Bao Quan (34 years old, from Hanoi) to make pills.

In early April, when Van Kinh Duong just stepped off the plane at Tan Son Nhat airport, he was arrested by detectives. At the same time, more than 200 police officers simultaneously searched 13 drug factories, the residences of Duong and 15 accomplices in Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces.

15 people involved were arrested. Police seized hundreds of kilograms of processed drugs, 500,000 ecstasy pills (estimated value 200 billion), many machines and equipment. Total assets seized amounted to 60 billion VND, including: 7 cars, real estate in Saigon, Dong Nai, Hanoi...

According to VNE