The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security has broken up a major human trafficking ring which sold Vietnamese women to China using forged marriage certificates.

The Criminal Police Department under the ministry teamed up with police in Dak Nong Province in the Central Highlands region to crack down on a cross-border human trafficking ring and arrest its three leaders, according to an announcement released by the ministry on Tuesday.

The individuals taken into custody by authorities were identified as Vay Tuyet Mai, 40, and Tran Quang Phat, 44, both residents of Binh Tan District in Ho Chi Minh City; and Nguyen Thi Nho, a 38-year-old resident of Dak Nong Province.

Police in the Central Highlands province discovered that Mai had disguised the trafficking operation as a marriage brokering company with branches in Ho Chi Minh City, Dak Nong, and several Mekong Delta localities.

After collecting evidence, police summoned Mai; Nho; Phat; Tran Sieu Khiem, a 64-year-old resident of District 6 in Ho Chi Minh City; and Huynh Hong Chi, 40, from Ca Mau Province, on Tuesday last week.

Results of the investigation showed that Mai is Vietnamese-Chinese and is married to a Chinese national, and that she often traveled between Vietnam and China.  

The investigation also uncovered that in late 2022, Mai met a Vietnamese woman who lives in China and was told that there is a market in China for Vietnamese brides.

Mai began recruiting women to sell as brides to Chinese men, earning VND200-300 million (US$8,170-12,250) per sale.

Mai colluded with Nho, Khiem, and Phat organized online or in-person meetings that allowed Chinese men to select a suitable woman. They also completed all relevant procedures and paperwork to send the selected women to China.

After being trafficked to China, the victims were kept under close watch by their 'husbands' and had their ID cards, passports, and phones seized. 

Mai and her accomplices have trafficked dozens of Vietnamese women in the past year.

Some victims managed to escape from China and return to Vietnam, where they reached out to police for help.

Mai and other traffickers were detained while preparing to sell seven more women to China.

Police are currently expanding their probe into the ring.

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