Top cop in Vietnam arrested on international gambling charges

Nguyen Thanh Hoa (60), a senior police officer in Vietnam, was reportedly arrested Sunday as a suspect involved in illegally organising international online gambling operations, according to the Reuters news agency.

A spokesman for the Police Ministry in Hanoi said the case is part of a widespread corruption crackdown that has now extended beyond the energy and banking sectors to provincial levels and the public security force.

The suspect is accused by prosecutors of of organising gambling, the ministry statement said, adding the move was part of an online gambling and money laundering case.

“This is a particularly large scale case, using high technology, especially serious, complex and sensitive, involving many people, many sectors and provinces, involving officials within the police,” State-run radio Voice of Vietnam news website later cited the Party’s secretariat as saying on Sunday.

Hoa was reportedly a former head of the police’s high-technology department, and was stripped off his “people’s police” title by the nation’s president on Sunday, the ministry said.

The crackdown has also resulted in a 13-year prison term for a former politburo member, Dinh La Thang, and a death sentence for a former chairman of state energy firm PetroVietnam. Dozens of other officials have received jail terms.

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