Police and relevant authorities in Vietnam’s Quang Tri Province have arrested Vietnamese nationals involved in a smuggling ring transporting Chinese nationals to Laos and other ASEAN countries.
Vnexpress reports that officers at the Lao Bao International Border Gate, which connects Laos and Vietnam’s Quang Tri Province, detained 11 Chinese and five Vietnamese nationals on Friday in connection to the incident.
The arrest of a 27-year-old man, Le Ngoc Quy, who was assisting four men from China to cross the border into Laos led to the police tracking down two more locals who were also in the middle of moving Chinese nationals on the same day. All the Chinese citizens arrested had entered Vietnam illegally to eventually move on to other countries in the region.
The ringleader of the smuggling ring was identified as Ho Thi Van, 48, from Quang Tri province.
Colonel Le Van Phuong, the head of Quang Tri’s border guards, stated that the Chinese nationals would enter Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar from Vietnam.
The motives for their illegal movement remains unclear.
