Paul Davis: ‘Born to Kill’ gangster joins FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitives list

One suspected member of the notorious “Born To Kill” gang, also known as the BTK gang, recently made the big-time as the FBI named him to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. The FBI is offering $1 million dollars for information leading to his arrest.       

According to the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Trung Duc Lu is wanted in connection with the August 2014 torture, kidnapping, and murder of two Vietnamese brothers who’d engaged in drug dealing in Philadelphia. Lu also allegedly took part in the torture and attempted murder of a third victim — the brothers’ friend and fellow dealer, called Sonny by the FBI, who worked with the authorities after surviving the incident.

Lu, a U.S. permanent resident who never pursued U.S. citizenship, is believed to have fled the United States for his home country of Vietnam.

“Adding Trung Lu to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list reflects the seriousness of his alleged crimes and our unwavering commitment to bringing him to justice,” said FBI Philadelphia Special Agent in Charge Wayne A. Jacobs. “The FBI and our partners will continue to leverage every available resource — both here at home and abroad — to locate and apprehend him. No matter how much time passes or where he attempts to hide, the FBI will continue pursuing him until he is found and taken into custody.”

According to FBI Philadelphia Special Agent Scott Baber, the lead investigator on Lu’s case, Lu’s apprehension would end a twelve-year quest for justice for his alleged victims, whom Baber noted, had wives, friends, and jobs beyond their criminal activity. 

“They were people who, in many ways, were trying to live the American dream,” said Baber. “They were certainly flawed characters and broke the law, but their transgressions should not have resulted in them meeting the kind of end that they did.”

The FBI said at the heart of the announcement is rooted in large-scale marijuana distribution between New York City and Philadelphia. Three Philadelphia drug dealers — two brothers and their friend — would get large amounts of the drug from a large, New York-based distributor on consignment. The idea was that they could resell the marijuana at a higher price than what they owed the distributor and still turn a profit once they paid them back. The trio soon started gambling the money they owed their source up north. This led their suppliers to deploy individuals to recoup the stolen funds.

The FBI explained that in August 2014, Trung Duc Lu and others were allegedly sent from New York City to Philadelphia to find the dealers and recoup the debt, which Baber said exceeded $100,000. When the men reached Philadelphia, they reportedly met up with Tam Le, a local point of contact who knew the victims from the drug business. Tam Le then reportedly lured each of the men to a house in Southwest Philadelphia, one by one.

“When they arrived at his residence in Southwest Philadelphia, each one was attacked, tied up, and savagely beaten in an attempt to extract the money,” Baber said. “And each person was forced to call the next person. Ultimately, all three victims were tied up inside this family’s garage in Southwest Philadelphia.”

The FBI stated that Lu and his co-conspirators collected some of the missing money and then murdered the three men. The BTK gangsters left the house and transported the three murder victims in a van.

“They then arrived at a parking lot on the Schuylkill River, pulled each victim out of the van, stabbed each one viciously, tied them down with weighted buckets, and threw them into the river,” Baber said.

“Miraculously, after being mistaken for dead, Sonny escaped the river and flagged down a motorist who dialed 9-1-1 and triggered a police response,” Baber said.

The FBI stated that Sonny’s statement provided to the Philadelphia Police Department enabled the authorities to obtain a search warrant for Tam Le’s residence. The ensuing search turned up evidence of torture, and a later search of the river led to the recovery of the other victims’ bodies.

“Le was eventually indicted in Philadelphia, captured by the U.S. Marshals Service in 2015, convicted in 2016, and sentenced to death,” Baber said. “The FBI opened an investigation into the incident around 2018, since the Bureau believed the circumstances of the alleged crime and evidence recovered suggested a nexus with organized crime,” Baber said.

“But Sonny hadn’t been able to identify any of his other attackers, since they’d been hidden behind masks, and there was also no forensic evidence left behind that could be attributed to the subjects,” Baber recalled.

In May 2017, Baber and his co-case agent traveled to New York City and interviewed someone who confirmed that Lu owned that phone number. Records indicated that Lu fled the country soon after on a flight to Vietnam. “We believe that he’s there today,” Baber said.

“He was on the run from a drug cartel and had been involved in massive drug trafficking,” Baber explained, “So he hoped to trade assistance for protection. The co-conspirator signed a plea agreement with the FBI, and his cooperation resulted in the federal indictment of the remaining subjects, including Lu. Lu is the only person who’s not been held accountable for his involvement in the crime, and that’s where we are today,” Baber said.

According to the FBI, Trung Duc Lu was born in Vietnam. He and his mother came to the U.S. as refugees when he was a teen, settling in New York City’s Queens borough. However, his criminal record began soon after.

“BTK had its origins in New York City, in the Chinatown area, going all the way back to the 1980s and ’90s,” Baber said. “A series of large federal indictments really crippled the organization.” However, one of Lu’s BTK associates is believed to have dispatched him to Philadelphia to commit his alleged crimes.

Lu is 5’7” tall, with black hair and brown eyes. He’s also extensively tattooed on his back, both of his arms, and the left side of his chest. He’s a nail technician, by profession, and speaks English and Vietnamese.

Although he’s believed to be in Vietnam, Baber explained, Lu still has ties to the U.S — including the children he had with a woman here.

And as a Vietnamese national, his status as a U.S. permanent resident still entitles him to due process rights under American law.

The FBI says that anyone with information about Lu and/or his whereabouts should call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or online at tips.fbi.gov.

Paul Davis’s Crime Beat column appears here each week. He is also a contributor to Broad + Liberty and Counterterrorism magazine. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime.com.