Police in Vietnam have cracked down on a transnational smuggling ring, arresting the kingpin and capturing exhibits worth over US$3.4 million.

After around eight months of investigation, police officers in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang detained Nguyen Thi Kim Hanh, a 52-year-old resident in the province’s An Phu District, on July 6 on charges of gold smuggling.

Police searched her houses and 15 other locations, including gold trading establishments, in An Phu and the province’s Chau Doc City on Friday.

During the searches, police seized more than 36 kilograms of gold, $1.27 million and VND1.7 billion ($74,045), along with a lot of computers, electronic equipment, and materials relating to the ring’s cross-border smuggling activities.

The total value of the gold and money seized topped $3.4 million.

As soon as Hanh was arrested, her seven accomplices turned themselves in to police.

Local police had put the ring’s mastermind, also known as Muoi Tuong, and several others on the wanted list after they uncovered their smuggling of 51 kilograms of gold from Cambodia into Vietnam on October 30, 2020.

That day four ring members traveled from Cambodia to An Giang on a motorboat, carrying three bags containing a total of 51 kilograms of gold.

A police team stopped them after noticing their suspicious signs, as they were moving the bags of gold from the boat ashore in Chau Doc.

These smugglers aggressively resisted the team, which eventually captured one of them along with the gold.

The three others fled away but they gave themselves up to police later.

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