HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese police raided a house in Ho Chi Minh City and found 46 sets of human remains buried under the floor, which police believe were to be used in a scam involving fake remains of U.S. servicemen missing in action.
Police detained three suspects in the raid in the southern city, part of a stepped up investigation into the scam, a report in the police ministry-run An Ninh The Gioi (Global Security) magazine said Wednesday.
The remains, believed to have been obtained from graves, brought to 135 the number of sets of remains seized in the investigation this month. All of the remains are believed to be of Asian people, the front-page report said.
Organizers of the scam had convinced an undetermined number of people that turning in remains of U.S. servicemen missing in action (MIA) would earn them the right to live in the United States, the report said.
More than 1,800 U.S. servicemen remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia after the northern communists' victory over U.S.-backed South Vietnam in 1975. Since 1973, more than 700 sets of U.S. remains have been recovered and identified.
The United States does not offer cash or settlement rights to people who find MIA remains.
All of the detainees were residents of the southern province of Dong Nai, north of Ho Chi Minh City, the report said.
On June 12 police arrested a 72-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman in Dong Nai for organising the scam and found 89 sets of remains at the woman's house.
Police said the two charged three people up to 18 million dong ($1,147) each for promising to put them on a list of people who would be granted permission to live in the United States.
The scam organizers attached military identification tags and pieces of fabric cut from old uniforms bought in Ho Chi Minh City to make the remains look authentic, the report said.
Police were trying to determine where the remains had come from. The report said all the remains were likely of Asian origin judging from the length of the bones and size of the skulls.
The U.S. MIA office in the capital, Hanoi, has said it receives at least one claim of an MIA finding each week.
About 300,000 Vietnamese are also missing from the conflict that Vietnam calls the "American War."
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