Spate Of Crimes, Expats Among Targets: Vientiane

Last Tuesday during early morning hours our Expat client were woken up by a noise. Checking out the source, the husband surprised an intruder in his home. The criminal managed to escape after fogging the Expat with pepper spray.

The Expat couple lives inside a “secured” compound which includes five houses at Dongpamai Village.

With the police arriving on scene, it became clear that the intruders entered several houses and took valuables like wallets, phones and laptops with them. In the house next-door the burglars enter one of the bedrooms where the female tenant was still at sleep.

Lucky enough nobody got hurt and the stolen items will be covered through our home insurance, but this break-in is only one of many current happening in Vientiane.

A few days ago Vientiane Times reported as following:

Vientiane Police Office is now gathering information and evidence to arrest several criminal targets who are believed to be responsible for a spate of crimes in Vientiane.

According to the police office report yesterday, they have identified many targets for crimes including discharging illegal firearms, breaking windows to steal valuables, robbery, theft and snatching valuables.

Deputy Chief of the Interrogative and Investigative Department Major Amay Luangpakdy said officials already know who their suspects are but the problem is they do not have enough evidence to arrest and charge them as yet.

“However we are trying our best to investigate and obtain information and evidence to bring them to trial so that they can be punished according to the law,” he said.

The major added that most of the targets were major criminals believed to be responsible for the widespread spate of thefts and robberies recently and consequent disruption to the fabric of society.

Police believe there are other suspects who are also members of their group which they have yet to identify and hope to do so through ongoing surveillance efforts.

The department reported that there has been a spate of crimes recently, including bag snatchings, break and enters, safe cracking, robbery and forced entry to parked vehicles as well as the discharging of illegal firearms.

“We worked hard to investigate most of the problems in cooperation with other involved sectors as well as local residents in different areas of Vientiane. We were able to arrest some suspects already and are continuing to investigate more and more suspects related to the crimes,” Major Amay said.

He explained that the police have apprehended several suspects already and it is believed that most of those arrested are members of a larger criminal group or groups so they will have a good chance to extract the names of the others involved.

“Now we know some of the major gangsters who committed the crimes so we will compile this information and search for evidence to arrest them,” he said.

However Major Amay stressed that you cannot avoid or eliminate these problems in society, especially in a major city or capital.

“Whenever you have an economy that is growing, you will have crimes and social problems in the shadow of the growth,” the major noted, referring to the growing disparities between those who have money and those who do not.

“It’s same in another country for this reason; we cannot avoid this. However we can try our best to control it so that it is not a major problem.”

Major Amay said that the investigating police cannot talk much in relation to their investigations as this may aid the criminals by alerting them to their channels of enquiry.

Source: J&C, Vientiane Times and Facebook (photo relates to Vientiane Times article)