Bus commuters in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding localities have been threatened and robbed by gangs in recent months.

Their evil trick is simple: holding out a blood-stained syringe, hinting that the needle is HIV/AIDS-infected and threatening to attack victims with it in order to steal their money and assets.

This sometimes follows another common trick, in which thieves sell herbal medicine on buses at dirt-cheap prices and then attack those who take out big sums of money from their pockets for payment. The sale of the medicine is meant to choose whom to rob.

Some victims who refuse to give the thieves money are physically attacked by the gangsters in the absence of help from bus drivers and other passengers for fear of injury.

Keeping watch on the gangs

Tuoi Tre journalists followed members of the mugging gangs on buses in the city.

On March 20, three robbers were prowling the Phu Lam Roundabout in District 6, which is the center of many different bus routes in the city.

A guy called Vinh ‘den’ (black) got on a bus numbered 62L-3082 plying the Cho Lon – Long An route. He immediately took out a syringe with a blood-stained needle and pointed at a passenger, who was a student. He muffled his voice, “Hey, do you want a shot with this? Money.”

The student was embarrassed and mumbled in whiny voice, “I have only this. I am on the way home from school. I don't have money.” Vinh ‘den’ grabbed it and stepped towards the front door to get out with an order, “Let me get out, driver.”

He quickly left the bus as it was speeding down and got on a motorbike driven by one of the culprits in his gang. They rode back to the bus stop for another theft.

Five minutes later, they got on the bus numbered 62L-3223 and Vinh ‘den’ told passengers that he was a sales agent of the herbal chemist Thien Chi distributing medicine free of charge.

After delivery, he begged each recipient for 1,000 dong. Glancing at the passengers' pockets to determine who had the most money, he jutted out a syringe kept in his shirt pocket and began robbing the passengers.

Pointing at a woman, he scowled, “Are you tired of living? Money.” She stuttered something and gave him VND200,000 (US$9.6). He took it and snatched another VND100,000 from her purse.

Then, he turned the syringe on another woman sitting next to the previous victim and got 200,000 dong more with the same trick.

The following day, Vinh ‘den’ got on bus 62L-5128 and advertised a herb for the treatment of malaria, diabetes and stomachaches for just 1,000 dong a dose.

Vinh ‘den’ and a culprit called Khang turned up as robbers, taking a total of VND1.7 million ($82) from passengers on the bus.

Besides the gang of Vinh ‘den’, bus passengers have been threatened by a gang in An Lac, Binh Chanh District, and the area near the Western Bus Station.

The gangs may move to other bus routes if they feel they are traced.

After robbing five to ten buses a day, members of the gangs of Vinh ‘den’ and Hung return to Hoang Phung Hotel in the area to share their loot.

Fear

A bus driver assistant, Tran Dinh Long, told Tuoi Tre, “Most buses plying this route are mugged by the gangs, but we drivers dare not to report or resist them for fear of revenge. What we can do is warn passengers before they get on.”.

They robbed passengers in broad daylight long ago, but few victims reported the cases to local police.

Tuoi Tre reported the situation to the Binh Tan District police department and Tran Van Hien, vice chief of an investigative police team in the district said, “We have been collecting information about the gangs and will raid them soon.”