Man arrested over murder of Sydney woman snatched from home and set alight

A man has been arrested and charged with the murder of a Sydney woman who was kidnapped from her suburban home, stripped naked in front of two children, shot and left inside a car as it was torched.

Thi Kim Tran, 45, was abducted from her Bankstown home on April 17 by a group of masked men who broke in, bashed an eight-year-old boy with a baseball bat and forced Tran at gunpoint into a black SUV in front of a second boy.

Police allege Tran was targeted after her husband was accused of stealing up to 80 kilograms of methamphetamine from a Victorian drug syndicate he was working for. He has denied the theft and has not been charged over his alleged involvement in the criminal group.

On Thursday morning, Strike Force Bushfield detectives arrested The Anh Nguyen at a Bankstown unit before charging him with the joint criminal enterprise murder of Tran, whom detectives have maintained was innocent and unaware of her husband’s alleged criminal activity.

Police will allege Nguyen, 29, led Tran’s killers to the couple’s home while her husband was working interstate for the syndicate. Nguyen is alleged to have recruited Tran’s husband to the syndicate, employing him to cook methamphetamine in January this year.

Nguyen allegedly left Tran’s home before she was kidnapped. Tran’s killers were believed to have been contracted by the syndicate to carry out her murder, rather than members of the organisation.

Police say members of the syndicate sent several texts to Tran’s husband in the lead-up to her death, including messages serving as a countdown in the minutes before she was killed. She is believed to have been shot moments before the SUV, later found in nearby Beverly Hills, was set alight. Police sources have told the Herald that Tran’s husband did not receive the messages until after his wife had been killed.

Police will allege Nguyen was aware of the threats sent to Tran’s husband when he facilitated her abduction.

Homicide squad commander Joe Doueihi said Nguyen, who was in the “upper echelons” of the Victorian syndicate, had been tasked with resolving the group’s dispute with Tran’s husband and retrieving the drugs he was alleged to have stolen.

“He did this by meeting with the offenders beforehand, travelling in convoy with the offenders to the victim’s residence, parking his car in the driveway and knocking on the front door with the three offenders standing behind him armed with a firearm, a baseball bat and with their faces covered,” Doueihi said.

“He stepped aside and allowed those offenders to seriously assault that child and then to kidnap and strip the woman naked in the street.”

The eight-year-old boy attacked in the home invasion came out of a coma in the days after Tran’s death, but could suffer life-long implications from his injuries. The 15-year-old boy in the home at the time was not physically hurt, but suffered psychological injuries from the ordeal, police said.

Nguyen has also been charged with wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm over the alleged attack on the eight-year-old boy. Doueihi alleged Nguyen’s role in the syndicate was to facilitate the use of premises for manufacturing and storing drugs, and to hire people to work for the organisation. Nguyen has not been charged with any drug offences.

Nguyen’s arrest marks a significant breakthrough for detectives, who have been working since April to identify the syndicate members involved in Tran’s death.

Days after her death, detectives executed a search warrant at a vacant rural property in Springdallah, west of Melbourne, that had allegedly been used by the syndicate as a drug lab. No one was at the property at the time of the raid and no arrests have been made.

Police have previously said the syndicate was believed to be involved in large-scale methamphetamine manufacturing and was made up of predominantly Vietnamese males, but that there was no information or evidence suggesting the leaders of the group were linked to South-east Asia organised crime groups.

“The Victorian syndicate are a major player in Australia, and probably transnational organised crime,” Doueihi said.

Tran’s murder, along with a series of other violent incidents, dragged ever-secretive Vietnamese organised crime gangs out from the shadows and placed them back on detectives’ radar.

The brazen violence and targeting of an organised crime network member’s family is rare in the criminal underworld and would be a significant break of tradition for the gangs, which typically operate with discretion.

“It’s extremely rare and, certainly, this organised crime group have ... upset a few people out there in the criminal milieu because this is not the norm,” Doueihi said.

“Family, females, children are normally not involved in this type of revenge attack.”

Nguyen did not apply for bail in Bankstown Local Court on Friday. Outside court, Nguyen’s lawyer, Julie Nguyen, said her client intended to plead not guilty to the charges. Nguyen was remanded in custody to appear in Burwood Local Court on November 12.

Doueihi said detectives were putting “all efforts” into identifying Tran’s killers.

“I am confident that this will be resolved in due course,” he said.

Investigations under Strike Force Bushfield are ongoing.

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