Vietnam police cracks underworld gambling network

Police has busted an illegal online sports betting network, allegedly operated by underworld honchos, in southern Vietnam. The police has arrested the ringleader and nine of his accomplices too.

The police has also seised three high-end cars along with billions of dong and foreign currency, as police raided locations in Ho Chi Minh City, Tay Ninh and Binh Duong.

The leader of the ring was 36-year-old Nguyen Van Binh, police said.

Hundreds of officers belonging to the municipal police force and the Ministry of Public Security raided a coffee shop in HCMC’s District 12 on Wednesday night and arrested Binh, who they said had been running an online betting ring through a website since 2014.

They confiscated several online devices containing evidence of illegal betting apart from cash and other assets.

Binh and his accomplices had rich family backgrounds and were big names in the Saigon underworld, police said. The transactions the ring was involved in over the past five years ran into hundreds of billions of dong, police said.

The illegal gambling ring was being investigated further, they added.

Organizing sports betting remains illegal in Vietnam but various operations have been busted during the World Cup season.

Just a week ago, an illegal online betting ring worth over VND2 trillion ($89 million) was busted and at least 10 people arrested in several cities and provinces.

Last month, another online gambling ring using the web portal 12bet was busted. Four suspects were arrested and a total of over VND300 million in cash, computers and phones were seised.

Source: e.vnexpress.net