Dorchester guy gets seven years for kidnapping and beating man over gambling debt

A federal judge this week sentenced Quang Le, 27, to seven years in federal prison after he admitted to attacking and threatening to kill a man who owed him and his associates $40,000 in unpaid gambling debts.

Three other Dorchester men - Ban Tran, 26; Vinh Huynh, 35 and Kim Nguyen, 25 - have pleaded innocent to the charges of kidnapping, conspiracy to collect extensions of credit by extortionate means and operating an illegal gambling business and wait trial in US District Court in Boston, the US Attorney's office reports.

According to an affidavit by an FBI agent who investigated the case, which says at least one other man, still unidentified, may have been involved, the men kidnapped the victim on Nov. 14, 2016 because he allegedly owed Huynh the money for losses on bets on sporting events. They took his wallet, phone and passport and drove him to the Mather School in Dorchester, where Huynh and Li held his arms as other men hit him in the stomach, head and back. They then drove him to his house and tossed him out of the car, after demanding he pay at least $10,000 by the next day or else.

The man went to the FBI, which agreed to give him money with which to pay off some of the debts as the bureau collected evidence against the men, the affidavit continues. The victim was not killed the next day, after he agreed to pay the $10,000 within three days - which the men then agreed to put off again. Finally, on Nov. 28, the victim handed $1,000 in FBI money to Le and then began payments of up to $1,000 at a time over the next several months, during which the FBI listened in as the men exchanged curse-laden threats against the victim and war stories of life as a punk, such as the times when they used to push women down to grab their purses as they flew out of the victim's hands - except that one time when the woman fell, but kept a firm grasp on her purse.

Complete FBI affidavit in the case (10.8M PDF).