Police in Hanoi arrested two Pakistani and Iranian men who impersonated Interpol officers in an attempt to appropriate money from a Bangladeshi traveler in the Vietnamese capital city after having taken over US$400 from an Indian tourist. 

Police officers of Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem District on Monday announced the arrest of two suspects, 55-year-old Abdul Aziz with Pakistani nationality, and Jahanbakhsh Ghiasi, a 50-year-old Iranian national, for investigation into their alleged act of asset appropriation.  

The duo falsely claimed to be Interpol officers and used a counterfeit police officer card of the Metropolitan Police Service of London to threaten Mohammad Iftakhar Hossian Khan, a 46-year-old Bangladeshi tourist in Hanoi, to appropriate money from the victim, local police said. 

At noon on Monday, a police team on patrol in the district detected suspicious signs from the suspects who were traveling on a motorbike in the Hang Thiec Street area.

The team then secretly followed the two men, one of whom later got off the vehicle, stopped Mohammad who was walking on the roadside, and raised a fake Interpol Police ID card in front of the man.

The suspect claimed to be an Interpol officer and requested Khan to present his passport and wallet for examination.

Just then, the police team arrived and instructed the two suspects and the Bangladeshi individual to accompany them to the district's police office for further questioning and clarification.

During interrogation, the two men confessed to using a counterfeit police officer card to intimidate their victims, who were foreign travelers in Hanoi, in order to extort money from them.

The card displayed the name Abdul Aziz along with his photograph, indicating his title as 'detective superintendent.'

Aziz said he had this card counterfeited in Bangkok, Thailand for 500 baht ($14). 

With the same trick, the duo committed a similar crime on March 11, Ghiasi confessed.

At noon that day, they stopped a male Indian tourist on Hang Gai Street in the same district, threatened the man, and appropriated VND10 million ($405) from him.

They escaped from the scene on their motorbike after scaring the Indian man away. 

From this testimony, the district's police launched a probe and identified the victim to be 26-year-old Pradhap Kakkappan, who confirmed Ghiasi as the culprit of the appropriation after looking at the Iranian man’s photo shown by police officers.

Local police are further investigating the case.

Like us on Facebook or  follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!