Following the clues…
In February 2025, from information on cyberspace, Dien Bien Provincial Police traced the traces of a high-tech criminal organization operating in the Golden Triangle Economic Zone (Bo Keo Province, Lao People's Democratic Republic).
Recognizing that this is a particularly serious crime, with transnational elements, sophisticated tricks, organized activities and operated from outside Vietnam, in early June 2025, Dien Bien Provincial Police established Project 625T, directly directed by the Provincial Police Director, in coordination with Lao Police forces to destroy the entire network in the neighboring country.
Regarding the criminals' tricks and methods of operation, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Xuan Lam, Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department of Dien Bien Provincial Police, said: Setting up a virtual gold trading floor called "ATFX", the subjects approached victims with carefully created social media accounts using images on Facebook, Zalo, TikTok with neat personal information, luxurious life, economic conditions, and luxurious lifestyle.
After making friends, chatting, flirting, building romantic relationships or trusted friends, the subjects open the way for the victims to enter the "investment game" with the promise of profits of up to 24% per day. Following the subject's instructions, the victims earn a profit of several million VND/day in the first days; the profits are transferred in full. When trust increases, the amount of money the victims deposit also increases to 10 million, 50 million, 200 million...
When the victim requests to withdraw money, the subjects start using tricks such as: technical errors, checking accounts, requiring additional verification... to prolong the time, continuing to "squeeze dry" the assets of the "prey". Not stopping there, they also use sensitive images, previously stored private messages to threaten, force the victim to remain silent or continue transferring money.
Although the methods and tricks of the subjects are known, tracing and solving the case is very difficult; especially tracing crimes on cyberspace in the Golden Triangle area is a huge challenge for officers and soldiers of the Special Task Force. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Xuan Lam said: in the neighboring country, the subjects constantly change hiding places, move across many borders, and use encrypted applications for internal communication. To catch them red-handed, the Special Task Force must send scouts to stay in the area for a long time, coordinating step by step with the neighboring country's police to grasp the movement patterns, operation diagrams, and actual residence addresses of each small group.
In June 2025, when the authorities of the neighboring country launched a raid in the border area, the criminal group immediately withdrew deep into the center of the Golden Triangle area, hid all electronic devices and planned to escape to Cambodia in many directions to avoid detection by the police.
The situation became more tense when in early July 2025, a source from the reconnaissance reported: "the ringleaders are planning to split their forces and withdraw from the Golden Triangle in many directions". This is considered a "bottleneck" that forced the Task Force to make a decision to adjust the plan to solve the case earlier than expected; mobilize all forces, strike first to stop the subjects' intention to escape and destroy evidence.
As planned, for 5 consecutive days (from July 4 to 8), nearly 200 officers and soldiers of Dien Bien Provincial Police coordinated with professional units of the Ministry of Public Security and Lao Public Security to simultaneously deploy many reconnaissance teams. The "pincer" plan was activated, locking down all escape routes of criminal groups. Each location and each target group was clearly identified, coordinated actions at a unified time, ensuring the principle: not letting any link slip through the net, not allowing criminals to disperse or warn each other to retreat.
From Dien Bien to Golden Triangle - 74 subjects caught
After many months of ambush and evidence collection, at 12:30 on July 5, from the command center in Dien Bien, Project 625T issued the order for a general attack.
At the Golden Triangle Economic Zone (Bo Keo Province, Laos), two reconnaissance teams consisting of 58 officers and soldiers of the Vietnamese and Laotian police simultaneously inspected and searched two suspicious locations - the places identified as the "headquarters" of the transnational fraud ring. The result: 45 subjects were arrested on the spot, including 14 Chinese and 31 Vietnamese. The ringleader Hoang Van Trung (born in 1994, residing in Quang Hoa, Cao Bang) was subdued while hiding in a bar in the heart of the zone.
Here, the authorities seized a huge amount of evidence used for criminal activities, including: 233 mobile phones, 292 All-in-One computers, 36 desktop computers, thousands of Lao sim cards, projectors, electronic devices... In particular, two large cardboard boxes contained hundreds of notebooks and documents, each page was a meticulously staged fraud scenario: from approaching, getting acquainted to manipulating the psychology and appropriating the victim's property.
At the same time, at Vientiane Capital Airport, another working group of the Vietnamese Police in coordination with the Ministry of Public Security's permanent office in Laos and other Laotian agencies promptly arrested 14 subjects (including 13 Vietnamese and 1 Chinese) who were completing procedures to fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The seized exhibits included 41 phones, 13 passports, and thousands of USD, Chinese Yuan and Lao cash.
At the same time, at Tay Trang International Border Gate (Dien Bien province), another task force continued to tighten the siege. 15 subjects were arrested while traveling by car from Laos to Vietnam to find an opportunity to cross the border to Cambodia by road.
In less than 24 hours, 74 subjects in a transnational high-tech fraud ring were arrested simultaneously at three hotspots: Golden Triangle - Vientiane - Tay Trang.
On the morning of July 9, 2025, all 59 subjects and evidence were safely escorted through Tay Trang International Border Gate and brought to Dien Bien Provincial Police for further investigation.
By 8:00 p.m. the same day, the Investigation Police Agency of Dien Bien Provincial Police had issued a decision to prosecute the case, prosecuting 38 defendants, including the masterminds for the act of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" under Clause 4, Article 174 of the Penal Code.
Project 625T was successfully solved and left a profound lesson on the journey of investigating and solving high-tech crimes in the digital age. The results of the project also demonstrated the effectiveness of practical and close international cooperation between the Vietnamese and Lao police in accordance with the spirit of the direction in the bilateral cooperation memorandum between the two countries' ministers.
This is also a feat that bears the mark of intelligence, bravery, solidarity and coordination between forces, contributing to protecting cyberspace security and maintaining people's trust. And above all, it is a strong affirmation: People's assets cannot be stolen by mouse clicks in cyberspace.
Source: https://nhandan.vn/cong-an-dien-bien-triet-pha-duong-day-toi-pham-xuyen-quoc-gia-post893653.html
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