Police in central Vietnam’s Quang Ngai Province have apprehended a specially wanted man who fled away after he and his accomplices killed six people and appropriated their assets 43 years ago.

Phan Thanh Viet, 71, did not expect the arrest after hiding for such a long time, said Colonel Vo Van Duong, deputy director of the Quang Ngai Province Police Department, said in a statement on Saturday.

Viet had long been wanted for the offenses of murder and robbery, the official said.

Viet, a native of Quang Ngai, and his four accomplices committed murder in 1981 in Binh Chau Commune, Binh Son District, Nghia Binh Province, which was split into Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh Provinces in 1989.

In April 1981, Viet, then 28 years old, and his conspirators set up a scheme in which they pretended to organize for people to leave Vietnam illegally but they actually aimed to appropriate their assets.

After getting acquainted with six people who were seeking ways to get out of Vietnam unlawfully, the gang promised to help them.

They later took them to a place in Binh Chau, where Viet and his accomplices killed all of them and appropriated all the assets they brought along.

The murderers then divided the robbed assets among themselves before escaping the scene of crime. 

Local police tracked the killers and arrested three of them, who later received two death penalties and a life sentence.

Meanwhile, Viet and another member of the ring were still at large.

That other member was later shot dead by police officers whom he fiercely resisted when they were trying to seize him.

Local police put Viet on the special wanted list but he still got away from police detection until early this year, when detectives discovered him to be hiding in Cai Nuoc District of the southernmost province of Ca Mau.

A plan to arrest the wanted man was conducted successfully and Viet pleaded guilty of murder he committed 43 years ago.

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