Vietnam extraditing nearly 400 Chinese gambling suspects to China
Tuesday, July 30, 2019, 16:30 GMT+7
Vietnamese police are cooperating with Chinese authorities in extraditing almost 400 Chinese suspects in a multimillion-dollar gambling ring busted in Vietnam over the weekend, a source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
Nearly 400 Chinese nationals were arrested on Saturday and Sunday when police raided an online gambling ring at the Our City Urban Area in Duong Kinh District, located in the northern Vietnamese city of Hai Phong.
The Tuoi Tre source said that the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and Hai Phong police officers are working with their Chinese counterparts on the extradition of these suspects.
The suspects would be extradited across the border, the source added.
Police were still barricading the urban area at the end of Monday.
This would stop only when all of the suspects have been extradited.
The extradition is being conducted pursuant to a treaty signed by Vietnam and China.
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| Police barricade the Our City Urban Area in Duong Kinh District, located in the northern Vietnamese city of Hai Phong. Photo: Tien Thang / Tuoi Tre |
Officials explained that this ring was run by Chinese suspects for Chinese gamblers.
The suspects live in China and they gambled in the form of sports betting, lotteries, bingo games, racing, and more via websites operated by the racket.
Police have concluded that the online gambling ring was operated under the guise of a foreign-invested company in Vietnam and the Our City Urban Area was considered their headquarters where hi-tech equipment was installed to monitor the operation.
So China will be the country that finally deals with the suspects, according to the treaty.
Almost 1,000 police officers and undercover detectives raided the urban area on the weekend and broke up the gambling ring that had transacted more than CNY3.6 billion (US$523 million) in bets, as announced by investigators in their latest estimate.
They searched over 100 rooms, detained almost 400 Chinese suspects, and confiscated nearly 2,000 smartphones, 533 computers, many bank cards, objects, cash, as well as other documents.
The 43-hectare Our City Urban Area was developed by Hong Kong’s Qiafeng Company and has been mainly populated by Chinese residents since it was opened about five years ago.
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