Hanoi’s police on December 5 arrested three men who were proven to illegally collect protection money from small traders in the city’s biggest wholesale market of Long Bien. 
Figures accused of appropriating money from traders in Long Bien market. Photo: VTV
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Earlier on September 20, 2018, national TV station Vietnam Television (VTV) broadcast on its news bulletin an investigative report on the blatant extortion of money which the men took from the traders for unloading goods in the market.
The men, who belong to the market’s unloading team, charged the traders dozen times higher than the rates listed by the market management board. Evidences showed the trio’s legal infractions.
The men were recorded by VTV reporters to show aggressive attitude towards some traders, indicating that their behaviors are usual and believed to last for years.
After the investigative footage, reporters Nguyen Thi Lien (with penname Lien Lien) of VTV on December 2 received death threats through SMS messages if she continued the reportage.
A reporter of Ho Chi Minh City’s Women Newspaper also received the messages with the same content.
On December 3, VTV sent a document asking for the investigation of the anonymous menace to Hanoi’s Police and the Ministry of Public Security.
Aggression and illegal appropriation have been known in Long Bien wholesale market for years but nobody has been punished until the reporters took action.
