Dung Hà

Vũ Thị Hoàng Dung (better known by her nickname Dung Hà; 1965 – October 2, 2000) was a Vietnamese female gangster. Born and raised in Haiphong, Dung Hà was a high-ranking criminal member in the city, and during her peak in the 1990s, she and Năm Cam were considered as the two great mafia bosses of the Vietnamese underworld. On October 2, 2000, Dung Hà was assassinated under orders from Năm Cam, who had previously been in a feud with Dung Hà in Saigon. This event eventually led to the destruction of Năm Cam and his gang by the polices and authorities, as Cam was later sentenced to death for ordering her murder.

On the night of September 9, 2000, Dung Hà continued to cause trouble, this time at the Phi Thuyền dance floor organized by Hải Bánh by holding a fake birthday party and then having her members throw shrimp sauce, human feces and snakes onto the dance floor. Năm Cam was furious in response, calling Dung Hà a thorn in his eye as he then ordered Hải Bánh to go find Dung Hà.

On the night of October 1, 2000, two assassins were directed by a phone call from Hải Bánh to go find Dung Hà. When the assassins found the female gang boss playing in front of the karaoke at 17 Bùi Thị Xuân in the first district, one of the assassins went up to Dung Hà, pulled out a 9mm revolver and shot her at point-blank range in the head, killing her. Dung Hà’s death however would later lead to the downfall of Hải Bánh and Năm Cam’s gang, which was later destroyed by the authorities in a series of persecutions that resulted in Năm Cam and several members involved receiving the death penalty for the murder of Dung Hà. Dung Hà’s body was later taken back up to the north where members of the Hải Phòng criminal underworld delivered her funeral service from Trạng Trình street (where Dung once lived) to the Opera House.

However, Dung Hà’s affair with this girl was abruptly interrupted in 1995 when Dung Hà was arrested and sentenced to 7 years in prison. After serving 3 years of the sentence, Dung Hà was finally released. She was now free, but now her criminal business was no longer as favorable as before because of increased police scrutiny. With her business over, Dung Hà decided to take her business to the south into Saigon.

Following the footsteps of a number of brothers and sisters, Dung Hà took on the job of pickpocketing and robberies to make a living. In the middle of 1986, while robbing a pedestrian walking on the street in the Iron Market, Dung Hà was caught and arrested, where she then later spent 12 months in prison for the crime. She was 21 years old at the time. This did not change her behavior though, and when she was released from prison, she became increasingly involved in the criminal underworld.

At age 26, Dung Hà became familiar with and fell in love with another man named Hùng Cốm. Hùng Cốm however was also a famous gangster in the Haiphong area from between 1985-1990, where it was said that no one could defeat him in the area. Along with her lover Hùng Cốm, Dung Hà started opening up casinos in the area, as the two went on a mass crime spree in the area.