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Crime is present in various forms in Vietnam. According to the United States 2016 OSAC Crime report, Hanoi is rated as medium in Overall Crime and Safety Situation. [1]
Among the first organised crime group to emerge in Vietnam were the Bình Xuyên, which during the 1920s acted mainly as river pirates led by Dương Văn Dương. [2] Bình Xuyên later became a legitimate military organization that controlled nearly the entire supply of opium of Vietnam in 1954. [3]
With the arrival of Vietnamese independence in 1945 (in the North) and 1955 (in the South), organized crime activity, including protection rackets, were drastically reduced as both the Northern and Southern governments purged criminal activity in their parts of the country. In spite of this, organized crime continued to persist in both parts of Vietnam.
In the South during the 1960s, the underworld of Saigon was defined by the "Four Great Kings" period, where the city was ruled by the top four powerful mobsters who presided over much of the organized criminal activities and rackets within the city, such as the drug dens, prostitution houses, night clubs and casinos. These four gangsters were Đại Cathay, Huỳnh Tỳ, Ngô Văn Cái and Ba Thế, referred to with veneration by a Vietnamese saying "Nhất Đại – nhì Tỳ - tam Cái – tứ Thế". These venerations refer to each of the four mobsters respectively by their level of dominance, with Đại Cathay referred to as being the king among kings in the city.
Following 1975 and the reunification of Vietnam, the era of the Four Great Kings came to an end. Later in the 90s, Năm Cam would come to form a dominant criminal group in Saigon, where he was known for running numerous gambling dens, hotels, and restaurants that fronted for brothels. He is said to have gone on a 15-year killing spree in Saigon in order to eliminate his rivals. As such, he is often referred to as the godfather of Vietnam. [2] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Meanwhile, in the North, organized crime continued to exist. However, it was much more hidden from the general public and the government's eyes due to the North's more stringent control over organized criminal activity and stricter law enforcement. In spite of this, organized crime persisted. One notable example was an organization formed by Khánh Trắng, the former President of the Đồng Xuân Labor Union in Hanoi, which was the first non-state trade organization in the city. At its height, Khánh Trắng's organization had received praise from the northern government officials as a model example of an organization that should be replicated. However, underneath the guise of operating a legal labor union, Khánh Trắng started to transform the union into a type of organized crime group that extorted from the merchants in the Đồng Xuân market and created unfair policies that resulted in fines against the local merchants, and profit for Khánh. [8] [9]
Another well known organized crime figure that originated from the North was Dung Hà, who was a female gangster from the city of Haiphong where she originally ran an illicit casino business, which brought her numerous followers or disciples. Other gangsters such as Hải Bánh also originated from the North, but some of them like Hải and Dung Hà later took their operations to the south in order to expand their operations and increase profit. [10] [11]
Vietnamese drug lords control territories in the northwestern provinces. Because Vietnam is located near the Golden Triangle, its heroin trade is concentrated along its borders with Laos and Cambodia. [12] Since 2019, not only has Vietnam become a drug market but also a transit port that criminals use to traffick drug to other countries. [13]
Meanwhile, Vietnamese illegal trafficking groups control areas in Hồ Chí Minh City. Their networks have been linked to the human-trafficking and human-smuggling markets, the ivory- and pangolin-trafficking markets, illicit logging operations, arms trafficking, and drug-trafficking markets. [14]
The Vietnamese mafia, nicknamed "the snake", has a rigid hierarchy, iron discipline, and total control over each member of the community established. [2]
Petty crime, which includes pick-pocketing and snatch theft, is common in Vietnam, especially near airports, sea ports and train stations. [15]
Scams are common in the country, and some of the most common ones include fake taxis/taxi scams, cyclo scams, fraudulent tour companies, shoe shine scam, fruit photo taking scam, massage scam, sunscreen scam and shopping scams. [16]
Foreign travellers have also reported attempts at sexual assault on fake motorcycle taxis (xe ôm) passed off as real ones. There are counterfeit and unauthorized merchandise which can be easily found in many areas of Vietnam. [17]
Prostitution is against the law in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Nevertheless, some women in the country work as prostitutes, either willingly or unwillingly, many blaming poverty or a lack of other employment opportunities. [18] One source estimates the number of prostitutes in Vietnam to be 20,000 to 70,000. [19]
A number of women and girls from all ethnic groups and foreigners have been victims of sex trafficking in Vietnam. They are forced into prostitution or marriages. [20] [21]
The Vietnamese government is making an effort to curb corruption in the country and a number of corrupt individuals, ranging from law enforcers to politicians, have been arrested. [22] However, the police force in Vietnam is also known for excessive use of force and there have been reports of police assaulting unarmed individuals. On July 23, 2010, while in detainment for a minor offense (driving a motorcycle without a helmet), 21-year-old Nguyen Van Khuong lost his life when officers reportedly physically assaulted him. [23] This misuse of force has raised concerns of the Human Rights Watch. [23]
On the first tier, Vietnam is divided into fifty-eight provinces and five municipalities under the command of the central government. Municipalities are the highest-ranked cities in Vietnam. Municipalities are centrally-controlled cities and have special status equal to the provinces.
Articles related to Vietnam and Vietnamese culture include:
Trương Văn Cam, known by the sobriquet Năm Cam was a notorious Vietnamese mobster who is often called the "Godfather" of Vietnam. Known for building and running a criminal enterprise revolving around gambling dens, hotels, racketeering, extortion, loan sharking and restaurants that fronted for brothels, during his heyday, Năm Cam was considered one of the most powerful mob bosses in Vietnam, and was said to have attained influence that even extended into the ranks of Vietnam's Communist Party which he used to his advantage by bribing law enforcement and government officials to protect his lucrative enterprise and cover up his murders of other criminal rivals in Saigon that challenged his reign. In fact, his connection and ties with the Vietnam's Communist Party was so tight that during his trial, 153 other people that were tried with him were high ranking officers of the Communist Party.
Major General Lê Văn Viễn, also known as Bảy Viễn, was the leader of the Bình Xuyên, a powerful Vietnamese criminal enterprise decreed by the Head of State, Bảo Đại, as an independent army within the Vietnamese National Army. Viễn's career trajectory was quite unique in coming from a criminal background to become a (non-Communist) leader of the Việt Minh's Zone 7, then later named a General, in charge of an auxiliary military force within the French Union, and, finally, named a General in the VNA. From 1951–55, he made arrangements with Bảo Đại, by which the Bình Xuyên was given control of their own affairs in return for their financial support of the government. In 1955, Viễn flew to Paris with the help of Antoine-Marie Savani and the Deuxième Bureau/SDECE after his unsuccessful attempt to oust the American-backed Premier, Ngô Đình Diệm.
Bình Xuyên Force, often linked to its infamous leader, General Lê Văn Viễn, was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Việt Minh. During its heyday, Bình Xuyên funded itself with organized crime activities in Saigon while effectively battling Communist forces.
Long Xuyên, formally named Thủ Đông Xuyên, is the capital city of An Giang province, in the Mekong Delta region of south-western Vietnam.
Dương Triệu Vũ is the stage name of Tuấn Linh, a singer on the popular Vietnamese diaspora music show Paris By Night.
National Route 1, also known as National Route 1A, is the trans-Vietnam highway. The route begins at km 0 at Hữu Nghị Quan Border Gate near the China-Vietnam border, runs the length of the country connecting major cities including Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, and ends at km 2301.34 at Năm Căn township in Cà Mau province.
Paris By Night 89: In Korea is a Paris By Night program that was filmed at the Olympic Fencing Gymnasium at the Olympic Park in Seoul, South Korea on Sunday, July 1, 2007. It is Thúy Nga's first venture into Asia to tape a Paris By Night program. Thúy Nga chose to tape at South Korea, rather than any other country in Asia simply because of the popularity of Korean actors and singers to the Vietnamese community. The program is directed by a Korean director, Seounghyun Oh. It is Thúy Nga's fourth "Live" show.
Paris By Night 90: Chân Dung Người Phụ Nữ Việt Nam is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga that was filmed at the Terrace Theater at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center on September 15, 2007 and September 16, 2007.
Paris By Night 95: 25th Anniversary - Cám Ơn Cuộc Ðời is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga Productions that was filmed at the Terrace Theater at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center on September 21, 2008.
Paris By Night 78: Đường Xưa is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga that was filmed at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre Studio #40 in Toronto, Canada on June 11, 2005. The MC's were Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Duyên. Seats are limited to a studio audience and is considered a private event.
Dương Văn Dương was a Vietnamese military officer and leader of the Bình Xuyên army. His nickname was Ba Dương. He was born in 1900 to a family of poor peasants in Bến Tre Province. During the 1920s, Ba Dương became the leader of the Bình Xuyên, then a coalition of river pirates who extorted protection money from the sampans that traveled the canals on their way to the Cholon docks. Known for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, the Bình Xuyên became popular heroes among the inhabitants in the jungle. In 1936, Dương started his criminal activities by providing protection services to the Tây Ninh-Phnom Penh bus station in Saigon. By 1940, he had become a kingpin of South Vietnam. When the Empire of Japan invaded Vietnam in 1940, Ba Dương organized a dare-to-die group of youth to organize resistance to their occupation with his younger brother Năm Hà along with some "inferiors" Bảy Viễn, Mười Trí, ... When the Japanese surrendered in 1945, he cooperated with the Viet Minh against the Anglo-French reoccupation of the country.
Đại Cathay, whose real name was Lê Văn Đại, was a 1960s Saigon mobster, and was considered as the top of the "four great kings" of Saigon's criminal underworld before 1975, followed by Huỳnh Tỳ, Ngô Văn Cái and Ba Thế.
Over the course of its long history, Saigon, Vietnam has had many eras of dominant organized crime groups that at one point or another controlled the illicit trade and activities within the city. The long list of the organized crime history in Saigon covers the early Bình Xuyên pirates of the 1920s, to the Four Great Kings period of the 60s and lastly to Năm Cam's criminal reign during the 90s.
Dương Tử Giang (1915–1956), born as Nguyễn Tấn Sĩ, was a Vietnamese writer, journalist, playwright and revolutionary.
Xã hội đen,, is a Vietnamese term used to describe criminal underworld. The term is believed to have become widely used thanks to Hong Kong TV series and movies about the Chinese secret society of Heishehui. An individual who participates in these criminal activities can be called a giang hồ, găng-xtơ, côn đồ, or tội phạm; while a criminal organization is known as băng đảng or băng nhóm, depending on its scale. They are those whose goal is to make money from illegal and overall immoral activities.
Cuộc chiến không giới tuyến is a TV series produced by Vietnam Television Film Center, Vietnam Television and General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army, directed by Nguyễn Danh Dũng. The series airs at 9:00 p.m from Monday to Friday every week starting from September 11, 2023, and ending on November 8, 2023, on channel VTV1.
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