Schuylkill River. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The abduction of three men, two of whom were stabbed fatally and thrown in the Schuylkill River and one of whom survived, was related to a dispute involving a violent Vietnamese gang, reports say.
Police said at a press conference Wednesday that there was a “drug nexus at the crux of this double homicide,” but declined to elaborate.
The Inquirer is reporting that police sources say the abduction and murder occurred over $100,000 in funds that was given by a Vietnamese gang to two brothers to buy drugs.
After the brothers reportedly gambled the funds away at a casino, the gang allegedly captured them and took them to a Southwest Philly garage where they beat them before letting them call a friend to bring the money.
That was when a 23-year-old man was called, who brought $40,000 to the garage, reportedly on the 2400 block of South 72nd Street.
Police are currently searching this Southwest Philly house, seen in a June 2012 Google Maps Streetview photograph, where it is reported that two men were held before being stabbed to death and thrown in the Schuylkill River over a dispute with a Vietnamese drug gang. Credit: Google Maps
After turning over the funds, however, the man was beaten and stabbed.
Along with the two brothers he was thrown into a van and driven to the Schuylkill.
The two brothers’ “throats were slit” before they were thrown into the water tied to a bucket full of tar, the Inquirer said. The friend reportedly feigned being dead and was thrown in the water but not tied down.
He later crawled onto the banks and pleaded for help from a motorist, who called police.
Police executed a search warrant at the garage late Wednesday night.
The names of the victims, all three of whom are reportedly of Vietnamese descent, have not been released and no suspects have been reported arrested at this time.
