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Ho Chi Minh City police bust prostitution ring stealing clients’ possessions via secret tunnel

Ho Chi Minh City police on Friday arrested three members of a prostitution ring that used a secret tunnel to steal the properties of their clients in Go Vap District.

Colonel Van Tra Lao, chief of the Go Vap District Police Department, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the agency decided to apply criminal detention to Dinh Thi Thanh, 40, Do Cao Loc, 41, and Huynh Thi Trung, 25, after nabbing them on charges of "prostitution" and "theft of property."

The arrest came after police officers caught the ring red-handed committing their criminal act in a snap swoop at midnight on Friday in Go Vap District after a two-month investigation into the case, seizing all related exhibits.

The ambush was launched after police officers were fed information by local residents on organized prostitution and property thievery in the area.

Trung and a client, T.M.H., 29, were having sex in a house when Loc stole VND3.8 million (US$177) from H.

Police officers rushed in when Loc and Thanh were counting the cash in another room of the house.

The three confessed that Thanh began to rent the house on Tan Son Street to organize prostitution there at the beginning of this year.

She then had a secret passage built from a room of the house to the toilet and cooperated with Loc and Trung to surreptitiously steal money from their clients.

Whenever there was a client in the room, Trung would notify Loc by phone. Loc then sneaked into the room from the passage to steal the properties of the clients having sex with Trung.

Then, the stolen money would be divided among all three. In addition, Trung paid Thanh VND50,000 ($2.33) as room rent each time having a guest for VND150,000-200,000.