Van Kinh Duong - the escaped convict who became a drug kingpin producing ecstasy.

Before becoming a wealthy drug ring leader, cruising around in luxury cars with hot girls every day, Duong was once addicted to drugs, involved in theft, escaped from prison, and was wanted internationally.

"Since his arrest, Duong has proven to be cunning, often not proactively confessing to his actions but only admitting to what we present as concrete evidence," an investigator said about Van Kinh Duong (36 years old, residing in Hanoi) - the ringleader of the largest drug manufacturing ring in the country, who was recently arrested by the Ho Chi Minh City Police.

Besides supplying ecstasy and crystal meth to provinces and cities across the country, Duong's gang is also suspected of selling drugs internationally.

According to police records, Duong's registered address is in Dong Xuan ward (Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi). In his youth, he frequently hung out with others to use drugs and had to undergo rehabilitation several times.

At the age of 19, during a knife fight, Duong injured his opponent and was sentenced. After being released from prison, unemployed, he wandered around committing robberies and ended up back in jail.

Duong Van Kinh and his gang are sitting and drinking coffee.

In 2008, Duong joined a drug trafficking ring in the northern region. When the police dismantled the ring, he received a 6-year prison sentence. While serving his sentence at Thanh Lam prison (under General Department 8, Ministry of Public Security), Duong shared a cell with three other inmates from Hanoi. Among them was Ma Thanh Phuong (46 years old), who was serving a 30-year sentence for multiple dangerous crimes.

In early October 2010, this group of inmates was transferred to Cau Cao detention center (Thanh Hoa Provincial Police) to await trial in connection with another case. Taking advantage of a lapse in security by the guards, Duong, Phuong, and the two remaining inmates sawed through the bars of a ventilation window, climbed over the barbed wire fence, and escaped.

The Thanh Hoa Provincial Police mobilized 600 officers, along with police dogs, to relentlessly search for the suspects for many days and nights. After some time, two of the fugitives were recaptured, but Duong and Phuong disappeared without a trace, and an international arrest warrant was issued for them. Police suspected they had fled to China via an unofficial border crossing.

However, Duong continued to live in Hanoi, participating with his wife Nguyen Thi Phuc (31 years old, from Thai Nguyen province) in a North-South drug trafficking ring led by Hoang Phuong Lam (38 years old). In this ring, Duong and his wife were crucial links. In April 2012, the Ministry of Public Security dismantled the ring, and Duong once again escaped without a trace.

After forging identity cards, driver's licenses, and passports under the name Tran Van Hieu, Duong lived comfortably in Saigon.

In late 2016, investigators discovered that Duong had repeatedly traveled to China. He gathered a number of relatives and family members to establish a closed-loop network for producing ecstasy and methamphetamine.

Many of the drugs produced were distributed by Duong to northern provinces for sale. Occasionally, the drugs were smuggled back into the South under the label "imported from China," so many dealers were unaware that Duong was the producer.

With his enormous income from drug trafficking, Duong quickly became a wealthy man in Saigon. Although he owned several villas and luxury apartments in Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, and other locations, Duong spent hundreds of millions of dong each month renting a spacious villa of over 200 square meters on Nguyen Du Street (District 1) for convenience.

He lived as husband and wife with the hot girl Vu Hoang Anh Ngoc (Ngoc Miu - who has appeared with famous singers in many music videos) and they had a child over one year old.

Duong and the other escaped prisoners in Thanh Hoa. Photo: Police

Although he owned seven cars, Duong only kept the McLaren supercar (worth tens of billions of VND) and the Lexus 570 at his apartment for personal use, while the rest were given to his subordinates as means of conducting transactions. For security reasons, the "boss" did not allow Ngoc Miu to live with him, but instead rented a luxury apartment in District 5 for her to live in with a few of his subordinates.

Every day, Duong would go with his lover to upscale bars and nightclubs to learn about customers' preferences in order to formulate ecstasy and crystal meth that suited their tastes. He rarely socialized with his subordinates, mainly running his drug ring via Zalo and Viber.

Although the amount of pre-processed drug powder produced by his cousin Nguyen Duc Ky Nam (49 years old) was consistent, Duong only instructed his subordinate Pham Bao Quan (34 years old, from Hanoi) to press it into pills when a customer placed an order with a specific quantity.

In early April, as soon as Van Kinh Duong stepped off the plane at Tan Son Nhat Airport, he was apprehended by police. Simultaneously, over 200 police officers raided 13 drug manufacturing facilities, Duong's residence, and the residences of 15 accomplices in Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces and cities.

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

According to VNE