The 14-year-old girl who was set free by police in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho from a kidnapping ring on Wednesday is a Taiwanese person who has a Vietnamese mother and a late Taiwanese father, Vietnamese police said Thursday. >> Vietnam police nab 5 for purportedly kidnapping girl for $47,400 ransom

The girl, Nguyen Han Duy, was released by Can Tho City police with the aid of their colleagues in Ho Chi Minh City after their swoop on a hotel in HCMC’s Binh Tan District on April 23.

Duy was kidnapped in Can Tho on Tuesday by a five-member gang when her uncle, Nguyen Van Khanh, was taking her to school on a motorbike in Thoi Lai District at about 11:00 am.

The kidnappers who traveled in a car stopped Khanh on his way and beat him before they took from the uncle a mobile phone and the key of the motorbike, and forced Duy to get into their car.

Duy’s family later received many phone calls from the kidnappers who demanded a ransom of VND1 billion (US$47,400) for her release or they would kill the girl.

Nguyen Thi Diem Thuy, 38, who is Duy’s mother, reported the demand to local police, saying that the kidnappers had warned her not to let them know about the blackmail during their phone calls or she would have to bring a coffin to HCMC to receive her daughter’s body.

After Thuy told the kidnappers that she could not afford the ransom, they asked her to sell land to pay it, Thuy recounted to police.

The woman then bargained with the blackmailers about the ransom and they eventually agreed to reduce it to VND500 million ($23,700).

The abductors moved on to ask Thuy to bring the money to HCMC without specifying the location where the woman would meet them.

The group just said Thuy should phone them when she arrived at the Trung Luong intersection in the Mekong Delta city of My Tho, 70 km west of Ho Chi Minh City.

When Thuy left Can Tho for HCMC, Colonel Phan Minh Tan, deputy director of Can Tho police, also led a task force to HCMC to hunt for the kidnappers.

During Thuy’s journey, she received many phone calls from the extorters who repetitively requested her to change her way.

They finally asked her to travel in a car with a Can Tho number plate toward Binh Duong Province, a nearby province to the north of Ho Chi Minh City.

The blackmailers told Thuy that when she reached Binh Duong, she would be contacted by a person who would receive the ransom from her, and that Duy would be released later.

Not agreeing to the plan, Thuy told the kidnappers that she would pay the ransom only when she met her daughter.

Thuy reported all the conversations between her and the extorters to the Can Tho police unit led by Colonel Tan, who was directing a hunt for the kidnapping gang, with the support by HCMC police.

The Can Tho task force then discovered that the kidnappers were staying at a hotel in Binh Tan District in HCMC, so they tried to track them down and finally decided to raid Thanh Dat 2 Hotel.  

At about 11:30 am on Wednesday, a joint police team rushed into two rooms at the hotel and found Duy being kept by a woman there.

Police seized the woman in one room, arrested three men in the other, and released Duy safe and sound.

The arrested were later identified as Truong Huu Luan, 23, Thai Long Ho, 26, Nguyen Phu Hai, 43, and Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, 20 (the woman).

Chi told police that she knew the girl’s family is wealthy, as she is their neighbor, so the woman discussed with her accomplices a plot to abduct Duy for a ransom.        

The four revealed that they had one more member, Nguyen Thanh Thang, 31, who had fled to the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long before police swooped on their hotel.

Colonel Tan then came back to the province and nabbed Thang on Thursday.

According to local authorities, Duy and her mother returned from Taiwan to Can Tho after Duy’s father died in the territory.

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