Detectives surround and capture 'rich kid' on the run

"When the detectives raided the garden cafe, he tiptoed away but the shots in the air made him falter," said an officer from the Criminal Police Department (PC02) of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province Police when arresting Ngo Xuan Quyen, 29 years old, following the order.wanted.

Quyen is the only son of the former Deputy Police Chief of Xuyen Moc District. After finishing 12th grade, he joined the army. After returning from the army, the "rich kid" fell into gambling despite the advice of his father and family members.

In 2017, Quyen organized a casino at a coffee shop near his house in Phuoc Buu town (Xuyen Moc district) and was arrested and sentenced to 8 months in prison. After being released from prison, he got married and had children, but he still did not give up gambling.

Ngo Xuan Quyen at the time of his arrest in Kien Giang. Photo: Quang Binh

At the end of October 2019, Quyen set up a dice gambling den that operated from 12:00 to 18:00 every day in the forest of Binh Chau - Phuoc Buu Nature Reserve. The den was built with makeshift tarps surrounded by dense trees. Every day he changed locations to avoid detection by the police.

Quyen hired a group of underlings for 300,000-700,000 VND per day to help shake the dice, keep watch over many rounds, lead players into the casino and remind them to pay after each bet. Each game, the winner had to pay the casino owner 50,000 VND for every 1 million VND won. Gamblers revealed that there were games with even-odd bets ranging from several hundred million VND to 1 billion VND.

In November of that year, the casino was exposed. Quyen and his junior Tran Minh Sang (28 years old) and many others quickly fled. Meanwhile, more than 20 others were arrested and sentenced to fines up to 4 years in prison for crimes.Gambling organizationandGamble.

"For more than a year of being wanted, his information has been intermittent," said the officer in charge of the hunt, adding that on January 10, when they heard that Quyen and his followers had appeared in the West, a reconnaissance team immediately set off. After three days and nights of almost sleepless nights, traveling through many provinces and cities, the police caught up with Quyen's trail.

At 9:00 p.m. on January 13, a taxi took Quyen and Sang, carrying their luggage, to a garden cafe with hundreds of square meters of space in Vinh Thanh Ward (Rach Gia City, Kien Giang). They went inside to wait for someone to pick them up and continued their escape. However, a few minutes later, detectives surrounded the cafe on all sides and rushed in to arrest the two fugitives.

Dozens of people playing dice on November 22, 2019 - before being arrested. Photo:Cut from video by Hac Minh.

According to the investigation, Quyen and Sang did not escape at the same time, but somehow they met each other and escaped through many provinces and cities. They only stayed at the homes of friends and social acquaintances, and constantly changed places to avoid detection.

The duo often traveled by taxi or were driven by acquaintances during their escape, making their capture difficult.