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An Giang Provincial Police are coordinating with the Criminal Police Department, professional units of the Ministry of Public Security and Cambodian authorities to urgently investigate the case of "Organizing illegal exit for others".
Prosecute the subjects involved in the acts of murder, robbery and kidnapping to appropriate property of Vietnamese citizens, which occurred on August 25 in An Giang province and Kandal province, Kingdom of Cambodia.
According to the case file, at around 11:30 p.m. on August 25, while patrolling and controlling the Tan Khanh area (Long Binh town, An Phu district, An Giang province), the Working Group of the Long Binh Border Guard Station (An Giang Border Guard) discovered Le Minh Hoan (born in 1991, residing in Bac Giang province), Nguyen Huu Linh (born in 1991, residing in Thanh Hoa province), Nguyen Van Tuan (born in 1982, residing in Hai Duong province), Pham Thi Tinh (born in 1984, residing in Ninh Binh province) illegally entering Vietnam from Cambodia, so they were brought to the unit for questioning.
At this time, the four people had many injuries on their bodies, so they were given medical care. When their mental and physical health were stable, the unit proceeded to clarify. Through initial investigation, all four people confessed that they were instructed by the Facebook account owner “Bin Bo” (currently living in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province) to go to Taiwan (China) to find work; they were instructed to go to Long Binh town (An Phu district, An Giang province) to go to Cambodia.
On August 25, the group of 5 people (including Hoang Van Mua, residing in Hai Duong province) gathered at a 3-storey boarding house in Cambodia (address unknown). There, they were beaten, tortured, blackmailed, and asked to contact their families to transfer money to an account number provided by the subjects by more than 10 people (wearing masks, carrying guns, knives, and sticks). Hoang Van Mua alone was beaten to death. At 9:30 p.m. on August 25, taking advantage of the absence of people, all 4 people fled, swam across the Binh Ghi River to return to Vietnam, and were discovered by the Long Binh Border Guard Station.
On August 28, Long Binh Border Guard Station issued a decision to prosecute the criminal case of "Organizing illegal exit for others" and handed it over to the An Giang Police Security Investigation Agency for investigation and handling according to regulations.
Receiving the case, based on the investigation documents, on August 30, the Security Investigation Agency, An Giang Police issued a decision to prosecute and temporarily detain Tran Thiet Thoai (born in 1982), Huynh Thi Ut (born in 1980, Thoai's wife), Nguyen Thanh Hoang (born in 1967), Nguyen Thanh Toan (born in 1992, Hoang's son), all residing in An Phu district, An Giang province and Truong Van Chung (born in 1995, residing in Nghe An province) to continue investigating the act of "Organizing illegal exit for others". The above decisions were approved by the People's Procuracy at the same level.
Realizing that the case was of a particularly serious nature and had foreign elements, An Giang Provincial Police established a special project, coordinated with the Criminal Police Department and professional units of the Ministry of Public Security to urgently investigate and prosecute the criminals.
Based on the testimony of the victims and the subjects who organized the group of victims to illegally exit to Cambodia, the task force expanded the investigation of the case, determining that around mid-August 2023, Truong Van Chung (with the Facebook nickname "Bin Bo") received a message via the Messenger application from a strange woman with the content: "There is a service to help Vietnamese citizens illegally cross the border to Taiwan by boat departing from An Giang or Ba Ria - Vung Tau for 6,500 USD/person". Chung called via the Messenger application to discuss specifically with this woman and was promised that if he successfully introduced a person to Taiwan (China), he would be paid 7 million VND.
Chung then posted the message on Facebook to advertise for "customers". On August 21, Hoan and Linh contacted Chung to arrange for them to cross the border and find jobs. Hoan had previously met Chung when they were both working in Taiwan (China). Hoan and Linh invited Tinh, Tuan and Mua to go with them.
Following Chung and the woman's instructions, early in the morning of August 25, the group of 5 people gathered at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City and a 7-seat car picked them up and took them to the area near Khanh Binh Border Gate in An Phu District, An Giang Province to illegally exit to Cambodia.
At around 11:30 a.m. on August 25, when the car carrying the 5 people arrived at the area near Khanh Binh Border Gate, Hoang and Toan arranged to take them to Cambodia via an illegal route. Hoang and Toan had signed a contract with a stranger on the Cambodian side and hired Thoai and Ut to use a motorbike to take the 5 people to Cambodia for a fee of 100,000 VND/person. Tuan and Tinh were taken first, and at around 2:00 p.m. on the same day, Hoan, Linh, and Mua were taken later. When they arrived at the gate of Yong Yuan Casino, a car picked up the 5 victims and took them to a house in Sampeou Poun city, Kandal province, Kingdom of Cambodia. There, the victims were restrained by a group of people wearing masks, carrying guns, knives, and sticks, tied up, and brutally beaten on the head, back, and thighs, forced to take off their shirts, and burned nylon bags that fell on them. At the same time, they used the victims' phones to contact their families directly via social networking applications to record videos showing the victims being beaten and forced to transfer money to bank accounts designated by them to ransom their families.
The families of the victims Linh, Hoan, and Tinh have transferred a total of more than 499 million VND as requested by the subjects (specifically Linh 300 million VND, Hoan 150 million VND, Tinh 49.215 million VND). The victims Tuan and Mua contacted their families but were not prepared in time (Tuan was asked to transfer 300 million VND, Mua was asked to transfer 500 million VND). Mua was beaten and suffered a traumatic brain injury, and did not receive timely emergency care, so she died. Her body has been brought back to Vietnam for burial.
In addition, the subjects also robbed the victims of their personal property. Specifically, Linh was robbed of 2 cell phones and more than 2 million VND in cash; Hoan was robbed of 1 cell phone; Tinh was robbed of 1 cell phone and 800,000 VND; Tuan was robbed of 1 cell phone and 1.4 million VND in cash.
Implementing the direction of the An Giang Provincial Police Department and the leaders of the Criminal Police Department - Ministry of Public Security, the Working Group including the professional departments of the An Giang Provincial Police and the Major Crimes Department of the Criminal Police Department (Ministry of Public Security) went to the Kingdom of Cambodia to coordinate with the functional forces of the Cambodian government to examine the scene, conduct autopsies and coordinate the investigation of the perpetrators. The Working Group coordinated and extracted cameras around the motel area where the crime occurred; expanded the scene to extract cameras, searched the residence of the suspects and discovered and seized many mobile phones, laptops and evidence related to the case.
Based on the investigation results, it was initially determined that the victims and most of the perpetrators were Vietnamese. Some of the perpetrators and victims had worked in Taiwan (China). The subjects' actions were of a transnational nature. The subjects had planned very meticulously, taking into account the concealment of their actions since giving out information about tricking victims into illegally crossing the border, renting a house for the day by depositing, arresting and torturing the victims very brutally, with disregard for human life. These subjects also carried weapons to commit crimes and were ready to fight back against the authorities. The subjects' actions showed signs of committing the crimes: "Organizing illegal exit for others", "Murder", "Robbery" and "Kidnapping for the purpose of appropriating property".
Currently, the Special Task Force and the authorities of the Kingdom of Cambodia have arrested and identified many related subjects. The case is under further investigation and the subjects are being hunted down.
The police agency requested that the subjects involved in the case soon surrender and confess honestly to enjoy leniency under the law.
