On May 20, Ho Chi Minh City police said they had executed arrest warrants for singer and actor Sơn Ngọc Minh, singer Long Nhật and several others in a drug-related case. The move lands on a figure who once drew attention as part of a pop group that became a nationwide youth craze before his later career became better known for personal controversies than for new music.

Born in 1990, Sơn grew up in a poor family and, after finishing high school, passed the entrance exam to Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture. He set that dream aside because his family could not afford it. Instead, he was invited to cast for a new music group and was chosen as a member in the early 2010s. The group quickly turned into a phenomenon, filling schedules across the country and producing songs that younger listeners embraced. In 2013, he tried acting. A year later, the group formally broke up after four years together.

What came after was a slower, messier stretch. Sơn kept releasing music, appeared on game shows and performed on various stages, but he did not recreate the success he had enjoyed with the group. His name in the solo years often traveled with stories about his private life more than his work. In a 2017 appearance on Người kết nối, he said there was a time when he had only 25,000 dong in his pocket and did not know where his future was headed. He also said doctors suspected him of a serious throat condition.

That same year, he was swept into rumors of a relationship with a male singer after a close photo of the two spread online. Sơn later said they were “just close friends.” In 2019, he posted emotional comments about a failed relationship and admitted he had “fallen into a state of despair.”

The arrest now shifts his story from one of faded celebrity to a criminal case that police say involves drugs. The immediate question is not what he was once, but what investigators say he did, and how far the case will go as more names tied to the operation come into view.