BANGKOK: Some 100 police officers rescued a 6-year-old girl held for ransom by heroin smugglers in a hotel in northern Vietnam, officials confirmed to Bikyamasr.com on Wednesday. Police used tear gas to enter the hotel in Hoa Binh province on Tuesday and arrested two men and a woman who were keeping the girl captive. Five other members of the gang were arrested the same day. The girl was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home by eight people Saturday in neighbouring Son La province, said Ho Duc Tien, a senior police official in the Ministry of Public Security. The gang then called the girl's father, Song A De, and demanded a ransom of 500 million dong (25,000 dollars) and 1.7 kilograms of heroin. The girl was kidnapped after the gang leader asked De to deliver money to a friend, police said. De failed to pass the money on and refused to return it. Son La, which borders Laos, is a hotspot for smuggling heroin into Vietnam. The kidnapping had shocked many Vietnamese, who have seen violence in recent weeks surge to unprecedented levels. A government official told Bikyamasr.com via telephone that they would “look at how to bolster police and crackdown on these violent crimes” at an upcoming ministerial meeting. The official, who was not authorized to speak to the media, said that “we are all shocked by the kidnappings and violence in the country because this is not Vietnam.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/mzjIp Tags: Drug Gang, Kidnapping, Police, Vietnam Section: East Asia, Latest News
