Hanoi police bust ring trafficking 300kg of gold from Hong Kong

Hanoi police said Tuesday that authorities had broken up the operation and prosecuted seven suspects for alleged smuggling, including five Chinese nationals and two Vietnamese citizens.

Authorities said the case first came to light around October 2025, when investigators from the procedural assessment division under Hanoi police detected signs of an unusually large-scale gold smuggling network operating between Hong Kong and Vietnam.

After nearly six months of surveillance, police carried out a raid and caught the suspects red-handed while they were conducting transactions involving raw gold in Bo De Ward, Hanoi.

At the scene, officers seized five kilograms of gold bars along with related evidence.

Investigators identified a Chinese national as the alleged ringleader of the operation.

According to the initial investigation, after receiving orders from customers, the suspect arranged for gold to be smuggled from Hong Kong into Vietnam using sophisticated concealment methods inside shipments of electronic equipment in an attempt to evade authorities.

In Vietnam, the suspect allegedly hired Do Minh Duc, 38, from Vo Cuong Ward in Bac Ninh Province, northern Vietnam, to receive the gold shipments.

Because Duc had previously studied in China and was fluent in Chinese, he was tasked with acting as an intermediary, organizing transportation and delivering the gold to a group of five Chinese associates who had rented accommodation in Bac Ninh.

At the police station, Duc admitted that after transporting the goods for some time, he realized they were smuggled gold.

However, due to the high salary offered, he continued participating in the operation out of greed.

Authorities said Duc received between VND150 million and VND200 million, or about US$5,800 to US$7,700, per month.

To avoid detection and tracking by police, the suspects frequently changed transportation methods and routes while moving the goods through multiple intermediary stages.

After receiving the shipments, the Chinese suspects allegedly extracted the gold hidden inside the electronic goods, cleaned it with chemicals, and then melted and recast it into raw gold bars for delivery to customers in Bac Ninh and Hanoi.

All transaction payments were reportedly transferred to Duc.

After receiving money from buyers, Duc allegedly used the funds to purchase the cryptocurrency USDT and transferred it to various accounts following instructions from the Chinese ringleader.

Authorities initially determined that the smuggled raw gold was sold on the market for more than VND4 billion ($151,750) per kilogram.

Preliminary findings showed that from March 2026 until their arrest, the suspects had transported and traded approximately 300 kilograms of gold.