Shocking details about the gang of gold thieves in the West

A series of "earth-shattering" information about the gang of gold thieves in the West that was recently busted by the police has been revealed.

On the night of July 30, the police simultaneously "took action" against the gang of super thieves when they had just "stolen goods" in Soc Trang. The 7 subjects were handcuffed one by one, including: Nguyen Van Dan (42 years old, from Bac Lieu, temporarily residing in Tra On Town, Vinh Long), Le Van Muoi (39 years old), Le Van Dung (50 years old, both residing in Tra On, Vinh Long), Ly Van Doi (52 years old) and Nguyen Minh Thang (53 years old), Nguyen Van Diep (alias Lun, 44 years old) and Phung Thanh Tam (43 years old, both residing in Ho Chi Minh City).

Release shrimp, catch prawns

According to the police, as of June 7, 2016, there were 21 thefts in the Western provinces, including 10 gold shop thefts and 11 business thefts. The total loss was over 10 billion VND.

3/7 subjects in the gold theft gang

When the General Department of Police (Ministry of Public Security) established Project 115/T on the crime of stealing gold shops in the West, the police leaders of Vinh Long, Hau Giang, Can Tho provinces... continuously held meetings to find clues. The project team determined that this was an organized, professional gang of thieves, using water vehicles and breaking in from the river.

The Criminal Investigation Department (PC45) of Can Tho City Police has coordinated with the criminal police forces of the provinces in the region to verify, screen, and eliminate hundreds of subjects with criminal records for theft. In March 2016, the police discovered that Nguyen Van Dan, who worked as a boat rake on the Hau River, had many suspicious signs of colluding with accomplices to steal property by river. Using professional measures, at the end of June 2016, the police identified the subjects who robbed the gold shop that shocked the West as Doi, Thang, Diep, Muoi, Dung, Dan, and Tam.

In early July 2016, Can Tho City Police discovered that Dan, Dung and Tam were preparing a theft plan, so they reported it to the leaders of the General Department of Police and, under direction, PC45 Department coordinated with related professional units to secretly monitor and supervise every move of the subjects. On July 9, the three subjects used a 3-ton boat with a D15 engine placed outside to move to Binh Minh Town (Vinh Long) but failed to carry out the theft. The following night, they moved to Cao Lanh City (Dong Thap) to commit the theft but were still unsuccessful.

The suspect's image was recorded by the camera when the group of thieves broke into the gold shop.

Lock picking, crime scene evidence.

On the third night, around 2:15 a.m. on July 11, Tam used a tool to cut through two layers of iron doors to break into Kim Yen gold shop (Tan Thanh commune, Cai Be district, Tien Giang) and was caught red-handed by the police.

However, at this time, Tam had not yet taken the gold, so the police could not handle it. To make them think that they were not being followed by detectives, the task force assigned the Tan Thanh commune police to make a record of their arrest and hinted that the gold shop owner had discovered them and had called the commune police to come and arrest them. Tam was only detained for one night and then released by the commune police. At this time, Tam "innocently" told his accomplices that the police knew nothing about them.

"Super thief" caught

Continuing to wait, on July 25, the task force discovered that Doi and Thang had traveled from Ho Chi Minh City to Tra On town (Vinh Long) to meet Dung.

At that time, the detectives surveyed the gold shops in My Xuyen district and determined that they were likely to rob the gold shop in Kinh market (in Hoa Tu 2 commune). "At that time, we determined that we had to catch these thieves red-handed, so we coordinated with the local police to invite 6 gold shop owners to cooperate with the police to catch them red-handed and received the active cooperation of the gold shop owners," a detective added.

The task force divided into 6 groups to organize the pursuit of the gang of thieves. One group consisted of criminal investigators who directly entered the gold shops to ambush. Another group used water vehicles to monitor the river section they traveled on. In addition, 8 investigators secretly monitored along the riverbank opposite the back of the gold shops; 4 water commandos immersed themselves in the riverbank near the gold shops. The remaining group entered nearby houses to observe and monitor along the front of the gold shops.

At around 9pm on July 29, all arrangements were completed, now only they appeared. At 1am on July 30, 2 subjects appeared on a boat and drove around the market area twice to investigate the situation. When they saw nothing unusual, they turned the boat around and anchored it on the Co Co River, about 800m downstream from the scene. In the blink of an eye, they used a boat to run to the scene, about 300m from the gold shop, they turned off the engine, swam to the back of the Kim Hoang gold shop and used tools to pry, cut, and break the locks of 4 layers of fences and doors to break in.

Criminal Police were mobilized to arrest suspects hiding in Tra On district, Vinh Long.

“Once inside, they leisurely went into the kitchen to prepare rice, cut open watermelons and sat down to eat as if no one was there. After eating and drinking their fill, one of them went to the display cabinet to get gold, the other one held a piece of wood about 80cm long and stood at the door of the gold shop owner's room. If the owner discovered them and chased them, they were ready to attack and escape,” said the detective who solved the case.

After seeing that they had taken the gold and were about to escape, the scouts rushed in and caught them red-handed. The remaining guy jumped into the river and tried to escape on a boat but was caught by the Water Commandos.

Become sworn brothers to steal gold

Less than 24 hours later, the remaining suspects in this gang who were hiding in Bac Lieu, Vinh Long and Ho Chi Minh City were handcuffed one by one.

According to Colonel Tran Ngoc Hanh - Director of Can Tho City Police, these 7 subjects were divided into 2 groups. The first group included Dan, Dung, Thang and Tam; the second group included Doi, Diep, Muoi. These two groups met each other by chance.

Accordingly, one time the second group was running a boat on the river to steal, the boat broke down. By chance, this group met the first group, who used to repair boats, so they asked for help. After that, the two groups became "brothers" to cooperate, discuss, and come up with a plan to rob a gold shop. Dan's group spent money to buy a boat and engine for Doi's group to carry out the theft. After stealing the gold, they sent a member to bring it back to Ho Chi Minh City to melt it into a lump and then bring it to gold shops in District 5 to sell. The money from the sale was divided equally among the whole group.

Major General Nguyen Phi Hung awarded certificates of merit to the groups with outstanding achievements in cracking down on this major case.

With the above achievements, the General Department of Police (Ministry of Public Security) awarded certificates of merit to 8 groups with outstanding achievements in successfully solving Project 115/T on the crime of stealing gold shops in the West.

According to Major General Nguyen Phi Hung, this is one of the most serious cases, so the provincial police took a very decisive action. During the police investigation, these subjects stopped working, but the detectives continued to conduct the investigation silently and meticulously. In the end, we successfully solved the case.

“The discovery of this case has brought confidence and peace to the people. Some gold shop owners called me to say that the police’s discovery of this case has made them feel very secure and excited. Because they could not solve this case, many gold shops in the West are worried because they do not know when their turn will come,” Major General Nguyen Phi Hung affirmed.

According to Vietnamnet.vn