The police in Hedong County, Hanoi City, Vietnam, announced that they have successfully cracked down on a transnational online gambling crime syndicate, arresting 18 main suspects, with an additional 4 detained for participating in gambling activities.
After a period of investigation, the police identified the leader of the gang as Mã Tư Viễn (born 1981), a Chinese-Vietnamese. Viễn studied tourism in Taiwan, China.
After graduating, he worked in Taiwan for a while and returned to Vietnam in 2012 to marry Lê Thị Chinh.
During his studies in Taiwan, Viễn met several foreigners and collaborated with them to develop an application that provides technical support for gambling activities in Vietnam.
Later, Viễn and his companions went to Cambodia and Myanmar to learn how to operate online gambling systems and decided to start such illegal activities in Vietnam.
In July 2024, Viễn was hired by a group of foreigners as the main manager of an online gambling group in Vietnam, with a monthly salary of 40 million Vietnamese dong, plus commissions and operating profits, bringing his monthly income to usually around 70 million Vietnamese dong.
To operate the gambling activities, Viễn and his wife rented a property in Hedong County, Hanoi City, as the operation center. The house was equipped with computers, mobile phones, and surveillance equipment, and Viễn also recruited several employees to handle payments, transfers, and customer service, with monthly salaries reaching 15 million Vietnamese dong.
From September 2024 until the police cracked down on the gang, the total amount of transactions processed through various online gambling platforms by the gang had reached about 1 trillion Vietnamese dong.
The police stated that this is the first time a transnational gambling syndicate led by foreigners has been discovered in Hanoi City. The operation methods are very secretive, and to avoid being tracked, the gang members divided the online gambling routes into multiple stages, operating in different countries.
The captain of the criminal police squad of Hedong County Police Department, Ngô Ngọc Nam, stated that all 18 arrested individuals are core members of the gang, jointly responsible for managing and operating this illegal gambling business.
The police are still conducting an in-depth investigation into the case, and more criminal activities of transnational crime syndicates are expected to be revealed.
