Police officer who kidnapped boy gets 20 years in jail

Nguyen Duc Trung, 31, worked in the advisory team of the Traffic Police Department of Vinh Phu Province that borders Hanoi at the time of committing the crime. He has now been dismissed and his police rank revoked.

According to the verdict, in 2019, Trung borrowed money from many people and later he could not pay the debts, so he made plans to steal from the rich.

In July, he rented a car and used a fake number plate to cover the real one.

He drove the car to a villa compound in Hanoi’s Long Bien District on the evening of Aug. 14 and accosted the boy, who was riding a bicycle there.

He opened the door to block the boy’s path and quickly got out, bundled him in the car and drove away.

He made the boy give his parents’ phone numbers and used unregistered SIM cards to call them to demand VND15 billion (US$627,000).

The boy’s family contacted the police, but by night had VND13 billion ready to pay the ransom.

Early next day, Trung was arrested at an industrial park in Ha Nam Province’s Duy Tien District, 60 km south of Hanoi, where he was hiding with the boy.

The police said they had tracked Trung down and secretly followed him as he traveled from Hanoi to Hung Yen and Bac Giang provinces before stopping in Ha Nam.

When he was taken in, Trung shot at the police with rubber bullets, injuring an officer in the thigh.

Speaking at the court, he said he owed about VND7 billion due to cryptocurrency investments.