Police have detained one of the six Peruvians who used a welding machine to cut two ATMs in central Vietnam to steal VND1.4 billion (nearly $65,000) from one of them last month.

Police officers in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa on Tuesday arrested Nuez Correa Elmer Eduardo, a 42-year-old man with Peruvian nationality, Colonel Dang Van Manh, deputy director of the provincial police department, said the same day.

The man, also called Nero, is a member of a group of six Peruvians who broke into a post office in Dien Khanh District in Khanh Hoa and used tools to cut the cash compartments of two ATMs to steal money on March 29, police said.

After days of tracking down the thief, provincial police officers, with the assistance of their colleagues in Ho Chi Minh City, apprehended Nero at a hotel in the city yesterday and escorted him back to the province the same day.

Nero will be detained for four months for investigation, Khanh Hoa police officers said.

Police are hunting for Nero’s five accomplices, who were said to have fled Vietnam.

According to preliminary investigation, at 1:00 am on March 29, Nero drove a car carrying two other Peruvians to Nga Ba Thanh Post Office in Dien Khanh, where two Vietcombank ATMs were located.

At the same time, three other Peruvians also came to the post office on two motorbikes.

The group broke into the first floor of the post office through a window after cutting its steel bars with a ratchet cable cutter.

They then went downstairs to the ground floor and forced open two doors to get access to the backside of the two ATMs.

They moved on to use a welding machine to cut the compartments of the ATMs to steal cash.

The group escaped on their vehicles with the said amount when some motorbike taxi drivers rushed to the area after hearing noise from their cutting work.

Police were then called to the scene.

On March 31, Vietcombank issued a notice confirming that VND1.4 billion had been lost to the thieves.

This amount was from one of the two ATMs, Khanh Hoa online newspaper reported on Tuesday, adding that the other was also cut but the cash inside was not yet taken away by the thieves.

Nero told police that his group went south to Ho Chi Minh City after the theft and shared the stolen money there before fleeing to Cambodia.

A few days later, Nero came back to the city to meet his girlfriend and was captured.

Police said Nero has admitted to taking part in the theft and provided them with the identification of his five accessories.

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