HCMC – The police of An Giang Province have detained three local men for their alleged involvement in organizing a ring to allow people, including Vietnam’s 1,440th Covid-19 patient, to illegally enter Vietnam.
The three accused comprise Phan Phi Hung, Pham Thanh Hap and Trang Van Ut, aged between 26 and 42. They reside in the province’s An Phu District, reported Thanh Nien newspaper.
Dinh Van Noi, chief of the provincial Police Department, told the paper on January 8 that the police department will team up with the relevant agencies to strictly tackle those linked to the ring.
According to the preliminary investigating results, Phan Phi Hung made a deal with some persons in Cambodia and Truong Chi Tai, Le Van Dinh, Trang Van Ut, and Phan Thanh Hap to transport a group of people comprising the 1,440th patient to Vietnam illegally.
On December 23 last year, Hung was notified by a Cambodia-based person about a group of nine people planning to leave Cambodia for Vietnam on December 24 to move to Chau Doc City in An Giang and HCMC.
Hung then called Tai, Dinh, Hap and Ut to spread the news. Hung also requested Ut to rent an additional seven-seat car to transport these people after they had illegally entered Vietnam.
When these nine crossed a river to enter Vietnam, Hung arranged to transport three of them to Hap’s house. The remaining six traveled in the seven-seat car, whose driver was identified as Mai Van Tien, to go to HCMC and the neighboring Long An Province’s Tan Hung District.
Meanwhile, Ut drove another car to Hap’s house to transport the three people there to Chau Doc City and HCMC.
Among the nine that entered the country illegally, four were confirmed to be infected with Covid-19, tagged as the 1,440th, 1,451st, 1,452nd and 1,453rd patients.
Earlier, the police had issued a decision to prosecute the five accused—Phan Phi Hung, Truong Chi Tai, Le Van Dinh, Pham Thanh Hap and Trang Van Ut—for their alleged involvement in the illegal entry ring.
