Youth gang robs 31 people in southern Vietnam

A group of male youths are held at a police station in Dong Nai Province for robberies. Photo by police

Police in the southern Dong Nai Province arrested the group, which was led by Huynh Tuan Khang, 19, on Thursday at a rented apartment where the robbers lived together in Bien Hoa Town.

The eight are suspects in 31 robberies that took place along National Highway 51 during the past month. Among those that were robbed, 25 were women and some were delivery men.

The suspects told the police that they began to rob people in the districts of Long Thanh and Trang Bom and Bien Hoa Town at night during the Lunar New Year.

When detecting people driving motorbikes by themselves in an isolated area along the road, especially women, the group would have someone stand on guard while the others forced the motorbike to the roadside, where they then used a weapon to threaten the victims and rob them.

Police said that the youth drove large displacement motorcycles which enabled them to escape quickly after carrying out the robberies.

They also used fake license plates to make it difficult for the police to track them down.

There were cases in which people who chased after the robbers were pushed off their motorbikes and then attacked by knife, machete, or pepper spray.

Some of the victims had to be hospitalized.