"There is no evidence that the president of the Vietnam Boxing Federation was arrested for drug smuggling"

One day after domestic public opinion was stirred up by the fact that Mr. Liu Xiu Bao had been "out of contact" for half a year and had not directly managed the activities of the Vietnam Boxing Federation (VBF), on the morning of September 5, a newspaper reported that Mr. Liu Xiu Bao was arrested in the US for kidnapping and illegal detention.

Not only that, the above information also emphasized the possibility that Mr. Bao will be extradited to Australia, the country that accused Mr. Liu Xiubao and his accomplices of conspiring to import 78 kg of cocaine into Australia in 2016-2017 and had an arrest warrant for him according to the decision of the Melbourne Court on April 2, 2025.

There is no concrete evidence that Liu Xiubao (left) was arrested for drug smuggling.

Responding to this issue, Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung, Vice President and General Secretary of VBF, said that the above information was not reliable enough. According to Mr. Hung, the information that Mr. Bao was arrested and requested to be extradited to Australia was similar to what was posted by a US website, San Francisco Safety Public News, on June 30, 2025, which, of course, could not be verified.

Previously, as Mr. Hung affirmed, since Mr. Luu Tu Bao went to the US to take care of family matters at the end of February 2025 and stayed until now, he and Mr. Bao still had phone contact about the situation and activities of Vietnamese boxing. Mr. Bao also asked Mr. Hung and the members of the VBF Executive Committee to help manage the federation's work during his absence.

All relevant information is from the article on this social networking site.

At the VBF Standing Committee meeting on the afternoon of September 4, Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung and other members attending the meeting heard the Federation's Foreign Affairs Department report on the investigation of the case related to Mr. Luu Tu Bao.

Specifically, this department has studied the public records on the homepage of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Drug Crime section as well as the records on the homepage of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), there is absolutely no information about Mr. Liu Xiubao personally or related issues.

The above information was reviewed from the beginning of 2025 until now, including information stored in the past 8-10 years, and there is no detail mentioning the personal identity of the VBF president.

Regarding the possibility of having to hold an extraordinary federation congress to elect a new president, Mr. Vu Xuan Thanh, Deputy Head of the Department of High Performance Sports (Vietnam Sports Administration - Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), Vice President of the Vietnam Boxing Federation, said it was unlikely to happen.

The 2nd Congress of the Vietnam Boxing Federation will be held in October 2023

The VBF Executive Board has agreed to wait for Mr. Bao to sign a power of attorney, assigning one of the Vice Presidents to take charge of running the federation during his absence. On the other hand, as affirmed by Mr. Bao and his family, the legal troubles in the US are completely unrelated to drug trafficking.

Mr. Bao won the first instance trial, which means he was not convicted of any crime at this time, so holding an extraordinary VBF congress is unnecessary.

Mr. Thanh also added that the Vietnam Sports Department is urgently asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security to verify information related to Mr. Luu Tu Bao abroad to have a direction for further handling of related matters.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/khong-co-chung-cu-nao-ve-viec-chu-cich-lien-doan-quyen-anh-viet-nam-bi-bat-vi-buon-lau-ma-tuy-196250905150502874.htm