HCM CITY — Four men, suspected to be part of a larger crime ring, were caught red-handed by the criminal police siphoning gasoline from a tanker in HCM City on Thursday.

The four suspects were caught with dozens of plastic containers that they were using to steal gasoline from the tanker, which was parked at an isolated spot on Nguyễn Thị Định Street in District 2. Two of them were identified as truck driver Võ Sương, 51, and his assistant Trần Thanh Quý, 49.

Officials with the public security ministry’s criminal police department (C45) believe that the four suspects belong to a crime ring that has been stealing gasoline and oil from tanker trucks in the city, and that the ring is led by Huỳnh Minh Dũng, 38, a resident of Nhà Bè District.

Every day, after filling up the tanker from a gasoline depot nearby, Sương and Quý would drive to an isolated spot where two accomplices, Huỳnh Minh Dũng and Bình, would be waiting. Sương and Quý would break open the tanker’s seal, fill gasoline in 30-litre plastic containers and sell them to their accomplices at VNĐ400,000 (US$17.5) per container for gasoline and at VNĐ320,000 ($14) for oil. The trucks would be resealed after impurities were mixed into the tank to make up for the stolen gasoline.

Later, Bình and Dũng would resell these containers for VNĐ400,000 to 500,000 ($17.5-22).

The accused were selling thousands of litres of gasoline every day, the police said.

The ring has been active for months and involved several tanker drivers and drivers’ assistants that run on the same route, the police said, adding that the gang is operating several such groups in different areas of the city.

Further investigations are underway. — VNS