Case files

One year to dismantle a chain of buying and selling thousands of guns

TH (according to VnExpress) November 28, 2024 07:04

Hundreds of police officers turned over every brick in the basement, climbed onto the roof to check the hiding place and seized more than 530 guns and 36,000 bullets from Vu Anh Tu's trafficking ring.

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Dozens of toy guns were "magically" transformed into highly lethal military guns by Tu and his accomplices, packaged and sold.

Vu Anh Tu, 31 years old, residing in Yen Khanh district, Ninh Binh province, has relationships with "gangsters" in many provinces and cities in the country. While participating in groups on social networks, Tu confessed that he saw many people often posting questions about buying military guns for use, so he set up a transnational arms trafficking ring.

Tu imported many types of toy guns from abroad, changed the internal components such as reinforcing the gun barrel, adding a firing pin (a part of the gun mechanism that impacts the fuse of the ammunition box to explode) to increase the damage, then applied a new layer of paint to "magically" make it beautiful.

A gun costs 200,000 VND to buy, and 400,000 VND for accessories. After being "modified", it is sold for the lowest price of 5 million VND, and the average price is 10-15 million VND. If the customer wants to assemble it, Tu and his juniors will import expensive components to do it according to instructions, earning 70-80 million VND, some guns cost more than 100 million VND.

The ring has 6 leaders. Tu runs it all, responsible for "tuning" the guns. The people below are in charge of collecting bullets, boxes, silencers... Tu only sells the gun body, after the transaction, he asks customers to buy more bullets and other parts for use. The 6 managers will collect profits from each accessory they sell, then contribute to a common fund to pay a monthly salary of 5-7 million VND to dozens of "underlings" who are in charge of posting ads, brokering sales... in many provinces and cities.

Tu's group often communicates with each other using fake social media accounts or junk SIM cards. The 6 managers and their "underlings" have never met each other in person, reporting their work daily via a private chat group, and paying their salaries via bank cards. Customers who buy guns must leave their contact information, transfer money via bank account or ship COD (receive goods, check and then pay the delivery staff).

Receiving orders, Tu and his men disassembled the guns' components, then divided them into many small packages to avoid suspicion, and hired express delivery companies, technology motorbike taxis, passenger vans, trains... to deliver them to the buyers.

In November 2023, while handling cases of intentional injury in the area, when many suspects confessed to buying guns online, the Criminal Police Department of Ha Tinh Provincial Police established a project to trace the origin of the weapons.

Technical investigators have been scouring the internet for three months to find the methods, tricks and identities of those involved. "The suspects are spread across the country and do not stay in one fixed location, so verifying their background and identity is very difficult. We have to be discreet, avoiding stirring up trouble, as just one small mistake would cause them to erase all traces," said an investigator.

Detectives discovered that Tu and five other leaders had close ties with suspects in arms trafficking in Cambodia and Laos. In addition to arms trading, Tu also wanted to expand the market outside of Vietnam to increase his income. In addition, when "troubled", he would ask his partners to help him escape abroad through illegal channels.

According to the scouts, although the basic evidence was complete by mid-2024, the task force analyzed that if the case was solved at that time, it would only solve the tip of the iceberg, and the masterminds would not be fully exposed. With the goal of handling the root cause, the task force continued to travel thousands of kilometers to continue monitoring.

"Although most of them have never met in real life, the network is very closely connected. If just one person is exposed, the information will be transmitted to the groups. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a synchronized time to solve the case so that they cannot react in time," said a detective.

By November, Ha Tinh Provincial Police mobilized nearly 100 officers and soldiers to form 15 working groups, coordinating with the Ministry of Public Security and authorities of Ninh Binh, Ho Chi Minh City, Hau Giang, Tay Ninh provinces... to raid dozens of weapon hiding places of the ring led by Tu, arresting 43 people.

Investigators said that before solving the case, they had to "think hard" because this was a dangerous group of criminals, ready to shoot back. Therefore, it was necessary to ensure the safety of officers, soldiers as well as people living near the scene.

"We were relieved that the raid was silent," the detective said, adding that most of the suspects were surprised when they were subdued, but initially they were stubborn, saying that there was no suspicious evidence in the house and they could "go ahead and search freely."

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Detectives seized a batch of guns wrapped in plastic bags, hidden on the roof of a suspect's house.

According to the investigation team, Tu and his accomplices dug a tunnel several meters deep under the floor, then used plastic bags to wrap dozens of guns and put them down, paved them with bricks, and spread mats over them. Others hid guns on the roofs of high-rise buildings, or left them in the corners of neighbors' houses, buried them in the corners of the garden... When they saw the detectives turning over each brick or climbing onto the balcony, their faces changed color.

At the end of the search, the authorities seized 532 guns, more than 36,000 bullets, 211.11 grams of drugs, and two grenades. The investigation agency accused the ring of selling more than 1,000 guns to partners at home and abroad, illegally earning billions of dong.

Currently, Ha Tinh Provincial Police have prosecuted and arrested Tu and 42 others for illegally storing, trading, and using military weapons and illegally storing narcotics.

The leader of the Criminal Police Department of Ha Tinh Province Police assessed that illegal arms trading is the source of cases of using weapons to resolve conflicts, causing bank robberies, debt collection... It was Tu's group that sold guns to Nguyen Manh Cuong and Tran Van Tri, two suspects who caused the bank robbery and fatal stabbing of a security guard that shocked Da Nang in November 2023. Therefore, the dismantling of the network contributes to preventing serious crimes that may occur in the future.

TH (according to VnExpress)
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