{"id":363755,"date":"2026-06-17T03:19:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363755\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T03:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:19:22","slug":"federal-felon-behind-l-a-ice-raids-still-runs-ambiance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363755\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Felon Behind L.A. ICE Raids Still Runs Ambiance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ambiance Apparel owner Sang Bum \u201cEd\u201d 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 <\/p>\n

In January 2025, the owner of a sprawling downtown Los Angeles clothing factory, Ambiance Apparel, Sang Bum \u201cEd\u201d Noh, <\/a>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.<\/p>\n

His company, prosecutors successfully proved, was at the center of narco trafficking after Noh allowed \u201clarge cash purchases\u201d to be \u201cmade by drug cartels who bought clothing in order to launder the drug proceeds.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201claw enforcement also suspected a large number of employees of the business\u2026at the Search Warrant engaged in immigration fraud.\u201d <\/p>\n

So, the Department of Homeland Security \u201chired contractors to assist with the transportation of any individuals who were detained or arrested at the premises during the execution of the search.\u201d By the end of that day, June 6, 2025, 40 employees had been detained. <\/p>\n

One year later, the community is still reeling from those raids, which many call \u201cforced kidnappings.\u201d 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. \u201cThe 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,\u201d the group Lucha Zapotecha said.<\/p>\n

Ambiance became the site of fiery protests, including one that led to the arrest of labor leader David Huerta. <\/a>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. <\/p>\n

\"Lifelong\"LifelongLifelong Angeleno and longtime labor leader David Huerta was taken into custody protesting an ICE raid that ripped through a DTLA business last June\u00a0Credit: Department of Justice<\/p>\n

Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"federal\"federalDozens of protestors were arrested during the curfew that began at 8 p.m. Tuesday into Wednesday morning at 6 a.m.\u00a0Credit: Irvin Rivera<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Department\"DepartmentDepartment 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<\/p>\n

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. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d\u00a0Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said last year.\u00a0\u201cGavin Newsom and Karen Bass failed the people of California. They let these criminals roam free.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ambiance is still in business, and Noh is now a free man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ambiance Apparel owner Sang Bum \u201cEd\u201d Noh was allowing his fast fashion to facilitate cartel money laundering prosecutors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6361,143298,9978,3536,1054,3531,14,4701,48,52,51,47,50,49,13825,147723,147724],"class_list":["post-363755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alex-padilla","tag-ambiance-apparel","tag-david-huerta","tag-department-of-homeland-security","tag-doj","tag-ice-raids","tag-immigration","tag-kristi-noem","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mayor-karen-bass","tag-sang-bum-ed-noh","tag-seiu-united-service-workers-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}