Ambiance Apparel owner Sang Bum “Ed” Noh was allowing his fast fashion to facilitate cartel money laundering prosecutors say, which led him to hide $36 million in shoeboxes and trash bags in his Bel Air mansion
In January 2025, the owner of a sprawling downtown Los Angeles clothing factory, Ambiance Apparel, Sang Bum “Ed” Noh, agreed to plead guilty to felony offenses connected to a longstanding scheme to rip the U.S. government off for nearly $120,000 million dollars.
His company, prosecutors successfully proved, was at the center of narco trafficking after Noh allowed “large cash purchases” to be “made by drug cartels who bought clothing in order to launder the drug proceeds.” The money was flowing at such an incredible volume, according to court records, that Noh, a 67-year-old Korean immigrant, began stuffing it in shoeboxes and garbage bags that were hidden throughout his massive Bel Air mansion that would be recovered by federal agents.
Six months later, his company became ground zero for what would become months of chaos in Los Angeles after federal agents raided Ambiance Apparel, taking dozens of its employees into custody, many of them from the Zapotec Indigenous community. Most have been deported. The Department of Justice described the raid in court records by saying that “law enforcement also suspected a large number of employees of the business…at the Search Warrant engaged in immigration fraud.”
So, the Department of Homeland Security “hired contractors to assist with the transportation of any individuals who were detained or arrested at the premises during the execution of the search.” By the end of that day, June 6, 2025, 40 employees had been detained.
One year later, the community is still reeling from those raids, which many call “forced kidnappings.” Activists who worked at Ambiance staged a rally at the company earlier this month, vowing to continue to fight for the release of detained workers. “The fight does not end until every person currently in a detention center is released and all workers who have been released from detention are truly free,” the group Lucha Zapotecha said.
Ambiance became the site of fiery protests, including one that led to the arrest of labor leader David Huerta. His arrest led to swells of Angelenos and labor employees marching on the streets in DTLA demanding the release of Huerta, the President of SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West. Huerta remains free on bail awaiting trial on federal obstruction charges.
Lifelong Angeleno and longtime labor leader David Huerta was taken into custody protesting an ICE raid that ripped through a DTLA business last June Credit: Department of Justice
Scroll to continue reading
From there, chaos erupted. The June raids marked a turbulent escalation in federal immigration enforcement in Southern California. Operations at locations like the Ambiance Apparel factories continued across the city. Car washes. Restaurants. Traffic stops. Enraged crowds of demonstrators flooded the streets, some sparking mayhem and engaging in graffiti as heavily armed and masked agents continued to make arrests.
Dozens of protestors were arrested during the curfew that began at 8 p.m. Tuesday into Wednesday morning at 6 a.m. Credit: Irvin Rivera
Now ex-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem even went on an immigration raid ride-along in Highland Park in a bulletproof vest, a move that came after U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, an Angeleno, was manhandled to the ground trying to bark questions at her at a public event.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dons a bulletproof vest to conduct a ride-along as federal agents attempted to execute an arrest warrant in Highland Park in 2025Credit: Department of Homeland Security
Mayor Karen Bass, whose officers were being assaulted, imposed a curfew. President Trump sent in the National Guard, and then, the Marines. To this day the exact number of undocumented immigrants taken into custody remains unknown, but the Department of Homeland Security puts the number at more than 10,000.
“In the face of violence from rioters and demonization by sanctuary politicians, DHS law enforcement has made over 10,000 arrests in Los Angeles since operations began in June. Some of the most heinous criminal illegal aliens arrested include murderers, kidnappers, sexual predators, and armed carjackers,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said last year. “Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass failed the people of California. They let these criminals roam free.”
Ambiance is still in business, and Noh is now a free man.