Vietnamese gang leader added to FBI Most Wanted list over 2014 Philly torture and murder case

More than a decade after the bodies of two brothers were discovered in the Schuylkill River after having been tortured, stabbed, and bound, federal authorities have added the last remaining free suspect in the case to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List.

Trung Duc Lu is wanted in connection with the grisly murders of Vietnamese brothers Vu and Viet Huynh, whose bodies were pulled from the Schuylkill in August 2014. Known to authorities as prolific South Philadelphia marijuana dealers, the Huynhs were the victims of one of the most shocking gangland murders in Philadelphia in decades. A third victim was also tortured and dumped in the river, but survived.

Lu on Wednesday was named to the FBI’s list, having been sought for years. He is believed to have fled to his native Vietnam following the Hyunhs’ killings, and federal authorities are now offering a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

“These were not abstract crimes,” said Wayne Jacobs, the FBI Philadelphia Field Office’s special agent in charge, at a Wednesday news conference. “They were acts of brutal, calculated violence carried out against members of this community.”

Lu, authorities said Wednesday, is believed to be a ranking member of the New York-based Born to Kill street gang, also known as BTK or the Canal Boys. Thought to be 45 or 46 years old, he is described as being 5-foot-7, and heavily tattooed, including a dragon depicted in the center of his back alongside the phrase “Asian Pride.”

The crime for which Lu is wanted dates back to Aug. 27, 2014, when Philadelphia police pulled the Hyunhs’ bodies from the Schuylkill along the 2300 block of Kelly Drive. The Paoli-based brothers, aged 31 and 28, were found bound with zip ties, their heads covered in duct tape. They had been stabbed dozens of times, their throats had been slit, and their bodies had been tied to makeshift anchors made from tar-filled buckets.

The surviving victim, Tam Voong, then about 20, had also been tortured and stabbed, but he clawed his way to shore and flagged down police. Voong would go on to serve as a key witness in the government’s case against the killers.

Among those charged was Tam Minh Le, then 43, who was once included on the U.S. Marshals list of most-wanted fugitives. Le, also a member of the Born to Kill gang, which took their name from a phrase painted on the helmets of U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam war, was arrested in January 2015 at a Motel 6 in Virginia, where he was discovered hiding out with his wife and children.

Le, authorities said, had orchestrated the Huynh brothers’ murders, using his home in Southwest Philadelphia’s Eastwick neighborhood as the backdrop. The brothers, according to prosecutors, were in debt to a California marijuana dealer to the tune of about $300,000.

The Hyunh brothers, reports indicated, had gambled away most of that money at casinos in the Philadelphia area. The debt prompted Le to take them captive alongside several other men, who contacted Voong in an attempt to secure the missing funds. Voong, however, arrived to Le’s home with only about $41,000, and was also kidnapped, tortured, and left for dead along the banks of the Schuylkill in 2014.

Le was later found guilty of first-degree murder, and sentenced to death. He died in prison in February 2025, having been found unresponsive in a cell at State Correctional Institution Phoenix. His sentence was unusual: The last state execution was in 1999, when serial killer Gary Heidnik was put to death.

In the years following Le’s conviction, six other men were found guilty of charges related to the Huynh murders and Voong’s attempted murder. Among them was Lam Trieu, a New York-based Born to Kill member who in 2023 was sentenced to more than a decade in prison, and Jason Rivera, who was considered the “muscle” sent from New York to collect on the brothers’ debt. Rivera in 2023 was sentenced to life in prison.

Lu has been wanted by federal authorities since 2019, when he was charged with a number of offenses in the case, including conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and racketeering. He is the last remaining free fugitive officially connected with the case.

“By placing Trung Duc Lu on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, law enforcement is expanding the search and calling on the public, both here and abroad, for help,” David Metcalf, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. ”We will continue to pursue every lead until he is located and brought before a court of law, no matter how long it takes.”

Lu’s addition is the latest Most Wanted List development in recent months to involve a Philadelphia case. In February, federal authorities announced the arrest of Alexis Flores, who had long been sought in the 2000 rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl.

Flores’ arrest, FBI director Kash Patel said on social media, was proof that “time and distance do not shield violent offenders from justice.”

“We will never stop pursuing those who harm our most vulnerable,” Patel said at the time.