Authorities dismantled the largest gambling ring in a coastal town in Nghe An province.

On March 12th, the Hoang Mai Town Police announced that they had successfully dismantled case 1219B, combating gambling crimes involving lottery and football betting, arresting 11 suspects.

Prior to this, through intelligence gathering, around the end of December 2019, before the Lunar New Year, a large-scale gambling ring involving dozens of participants emerged in Hoang Mai town. The individuals conducted their activities and transactions via text messages and social media platforms such as Messenger, Viber, and Zalo. In response to this situation, the Hoang Mai Town Police established a special task force to investigate.

Through the flexible application of professional methods, the ingenuity and sense of responsibility of the entire investigation team, after more than a month of investigation, clarification, and collection of evidence, the tactics of the suspects were exposed. Accordingly, the ringleader operating the network was identified as Le Van Nhan (born in 1988), residing in Mai Hung ward, Hoang Mai town.

The suspect, Le Van Nhan, at the police station. Photo: Anh Quan

From the end of December 2019, noticing the high number of people participating in gambling during the year-end period, Le Van Nhan applied to become a first-level agent and organized and operated a gambling ring in the town. To attract and expand his network, Nhan recruited trusted "followers" as his accomplices.

From then on, Nhân's operations grew larger, with an average of dozens of people participating in gambling each day in two forms: lottery betting and football betting, with transaction amounts ranging from 100 to 300 million VND per day. After the lottery results were announced, Nhân calculated the winnings and losses, then deleted all messages sent by agents and gamblers to erase traces and destroy evidence to evade the police.

Based on the evidence gathered, the special task force decided to crack the case, simultaneously deploying nine teams to apprehend nine individuals for gambling. The arrested individuals include Le Van Nhan (born 1988, residing in Mai Hung ward); Nguyen Viet Phap (born 1993), Nguyen Khanh Linh (born 1989), Dau Thi Khanh (born 1976), all residing in Quynh Thien ward; Dau Van Tinh (born 1986), Dau Thi Lam (born 1975), both residing in Mai Hung ward; Nguyen Ba Nhan (born 1982), residing in Quynh Thien ward; Tran Dinh Tuy (born 1986), residing in Quynh Lap commune; Thai Nguyen Quang (born 1955), residing in Quynh Vinh commune; Nguyen Canh Bo (born 1991), residing in Quynh Xuan ward; and Ho Sy Quy (born 1988), residing in Quynh Thien ward, Hoang Mai town.

The investigation team also promptly carried out an emergency search warrant at Le Van Nhan's residence. The police seized one laptop, one safe, two notebooks, and froze one portable hard drive.

Among these individuals: Nguyen Canh Bo and Nguyen Khanh Linh were Nhan's "henchmen," after receiving information from gamblers, Bo and Linh forwarded it to Nhan to earn a commission.

Based on the suspects' statements, the police expanded the investigation and arrested two more individuals: Bui Van Hien (born in 1985), residing in Mai Hung ward, and Cao Xuan Hai (born in 1986), residing in Quynh Xuan ward, both in Hoang Mai town. Initially, the police proved that the total amount of money gambled by the suspects exceeded 2.5 billion VND. Currently, the investigative agency has issued a decision to prosecute 11 individuals for gambling offenses, while Ho Sy Quy has been separated and is being handled in a different case.