On May 19, the Economic Police Division of Ho Chi Minh City Police put Vu Thi Ngoc Anh, 49, and Nguyen Duy Tan, 45, in temporary detention for investigation into trafficking charges.
The ring began to unravel on April 20, when airport staff noticed Anh acting suspiciously as she checked in for a domestic flight to the resort island of Phu Quoc. A search found she was wearing and carrying about 2,221.2 grams of 99.99% pure gold, worth roughly VND9.7 billion ($368,000), in the form of bracelets and Buddha-shaped pendants.
Questioned by police, Anh said the gold had recently been brought in from Cambodia and was to be melted down, reshaped and sold. Investigators determined she was one of several members of a trafficking ring that bought gold in Cambodia and moved it illegally into Vietnam. Police said the operation was run by a man they identified only as Manh, who has not been charged.
Vu Thi Ngoc Anh (3rd, R) and Nguyen Duy Tan (2nd, R) at the investigation agency. Photo courtesy of Ho Chi Minh City Police
The group coordinated through the messaging app WhatsApp, using it to communicate, pool money and direct each run, according to investigators. To finance purchases, members converted Vietnamese dong into U.S. dollars and split the cash among couriers who carried it into Cambodia without declaring it to customs.
