Hanoi police opened the case under Article 151 of the Penal Code, which covers trafficking in persons under 16, the Ministry of Public Security's Criminal Police Department said on Sept. 30.

The accused are Dinh Quoc Hoang, 41; Nguyen Ba Giang, 24; Lu Van Tam, 27; Nguyen Ha Thanh, 38; Nguyen Ba Quyet, 33; Dang Vu Hai, 36; Nguyen Thi Toi, 61; and Tran Van Tinh, 22.

Hoang, owner of the Kimochi karaoke parlor in Hanoi's Vinh Thanh Commune, has been identified as the ringleader. He has two prior convictions for intentionally causing injury and an administrative penalty for disturbing public order.

According to police, the group posted "easy work, high pay" job ads on social media to lure girls under 16 into working as karaoke hostesses. The ring split its operations into stages and worked with contacts in several localities to find, buy, sell and manage victims.

Thanh ran the group's holding sites in Hanoi's Hoa Xa Commune and nearby areas, where hostesses were kept confined and sent out to karaoke parlors. Giang ran another in Ngoc Chi village in Vinh Thanh Commune, and Tam managed Kimochi.

Around 8 p.m. on Sept. 20, six teams from the Criminal Police Department and local police simultaneously raided karaoke parlors and holding sites in Hanoi and the provinces of Lao Cai, Phu Tho and Ninh Binh.

In Hanoi, officers rescued 34 hostesses from three karaoke venues, 12 of them under 16.

Seven more were freed at the Quyet Tien karaoke parlor in Ninh Binh, owned by Quyet, and five at the 68 karaoke parlor in Lao Cai, owned by Hai.

In Phu Tho, police summoned Toi, who owns the Viet Ha 2 guesthouse. Officers seized phones, ledgers logging the hostesses' pickups and drop-offs and the money collected from them, and other documents.

Nguyen Ha Thanh, Dinh Quoc Hoang and Tran Van Tinh (from L), three of the eight accused in the case. Photo courtesy of the police

Sold three times in under four months

Since 2025, Hoang and his accomplices have trafficked multiple children, investigators found.

One girl from the northern province of Cao Bang, born in 2012, was working at an electronics factory in Bac Ninh when she answered a Facebook job ad promising VND12-15 million (US$459-574) a month.

The account holder, whom police have yet to identify, took her on Oct. 9, 2025, to a karaoke parlor in Hai Phong and handed her to its manager, Tinh, for VND10 million ($382). Tinh showed her the bank transfer and told her she had been sold and had to stay and work off the debt.

A day later, Hoang picked her up and told her he had paid Tinh VND30 million ($1,147). At Kimochi, she was made to serve customers in karaoke rooms every day, pouring beer and selecting songs to pay off the "debt."

About three months later, on the evening of Jan. 21, Hoang sold her to Thanh for another VND30 million.

Thanh took her to a rented room and forced her to say on camera that she had borrowed VND30 million from him and had to work as a karaoke hostess to repay it. Investigators said the video was made to manufacture a debt that did not exist and keep her under control.

Another girl, also born in 2012 and living in Hanoi, was drawn in by friends she met on social media and began working at the same Hai Phong parlor around December 2025. After nearly a month, she had been given food and lodging but no pay.

In February, Tinh sold her to Hoang for VND29 million ($1,109). About a week after she arrived at Kimochi, Hoang's staff threatened to beat her.

When she asked to quit, Hoang refused and sold her to Hai in Lao Cai for VND29 million, forcing her to keep working at karaoke parlors to repay the debt.

The Criminal Police Department is expanding the investigation to track down others involved.