A Peruvian man and his five accomplices have been prosecuted for “stealing assets,” Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy, the city’s prosecution agency, announced on Wednesday.
According to the indictment, Elmer Eduardo Nunez Correa, 44, and his gang of fellow countrymen cracked open ATMs in HCMC, Khanh Hoa and Dong Nai from 2014 to 2015 and stole a total of VND6 billion ($264,000), local media reported.
On October 15, 2014, Correa and his gang broke into a supermarket in HCMC and stole pearls and diamonds from a jewelry store before cracking open an ATM containing VND32 million, said the indictment.
The gang also ripped open another ATM in the city to steal VND1 billion on February 25, 2015.
Police in Dong Nai Province found that Correa and his accomplices had used a blow torch to open an unguarded ATM in Bien Hoa, the capital of Dong Nai, in late December 2015, stealing more than VND900 million.
The gang used the same method to open an ATM in Khanh Hoa Province on March 29, 2015 and stole VND1.5 billion.
An ATM cut open by Correa and his gang in Khanh Hoa Province in 2015. Photo courtesy of the police. |
After the stealing spree, the gang fled to Ho Chi Minh City, then to Cambodia.
Correa later returned to HCMC, allegedly to visit his girlfriend.
He was arrested in HCMC last April in a joint operation by police from Khanh Hoa and HCMC.
After his arrest, he was transferred to Khanh Hoa where he has been in police custody ever since.