They nabbed Nguyen Thanh Chon on Thursday from his house in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2 and conducted search of the house. Nguyen Minh Toan was jailed in Hanoi earlier this week.

Chon was a right hand of Lai Thanh Huu or Dung ‘kieu’ in organizing a countrywide football betting operation and Toan was also a close associate.

Betting is illegal in Vietnam.

With these arrests, the police have six members of the gang in custody. Dung ‘kieu’ himself, Nguyen Ngoc Quang, and Hoang Tuan were arrested last May while another man gave himself up and is under house arrest.

The gang had bookmaking operations all the way from Hanoi and Hai Phong in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south.

The police said the ring had once taken bets of US$1.5-2 million on a single night of international football.

Jail-breaking leader

Dung ‘kieu’ has a long and colorful history of crime. In 1989 he was first jailed for embezzlement in Bac Thai province – now called Thai Nguyen – where he beat to death a fellow prisoner called Hac Van Trong.

He then pretended to be sick and made good his escape after being admitted to a local hospital.

Forging documents to change his name from Ngo Tien Dung to Lai Thanh Huu, he escaped to the Netherlands where his mother and sister lived.

After living for a time there, he moved to Canada and began organizing a drug ring.

Dung ‘kieu’ reportedly owns five villas in Canada and at least two in Vietnam worth millions of dollars.

In 2005 he returned to Vietnam to set up illegal bookmaking operations and was arrested.

Reported by Kap Thanh Long – Translated by Minh Phat