Bill Van Nguyen<\/a> sold and distributed more than 34 pounds of methamphetamine and more than
\n11 pounds of fentanyl and fentanyl-laced pills from their base in California to
\na Hawaii buyer, who was working for the FBI.<\/p>\nNguyen was sentenced to more than 18 years in federal prison and will forfeit $118,050 on charges of conspiring to sell 40 pounds a week of fentanyl and methamphetamine that was packed into cans labeled as condensed milk, green tea and hominy.<\/p>\n
\u201cDang played an instrumental role in trafficking
\nsignificant amounts of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and fentanyl-laced pills from California to Hawaii between approximately April 2023 to April 2025. In considering the seriousness of the offense, the staggering amount of dangerous drugs that Dang facilitated Nguyen in trafficking to Hawaii cannot be understated \u2014 over 15,000 grams (over
\n33 pounds) of actual methamphetamine and over 3,700 grams of fentanyl (over eight pounds) that were recovered and tested in the investigation,\u201d wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney
\nRebecca A. Perlmutter, in a July 2 sentencing memo asking Park to sentence Dang to 87 months.<\/p>\n
Don’t miss out on what’s happening!<\/p>\n
Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It’s FREE!<\/p>\n
Dang had no prior criminal convictions.<\/p>\n
At sentencing, Park noted that Dang\u2019s conduct involved bringing an \u201cextraordinarily high\u201d amount of methamphetamine and
\nfentanyl into a community that Dang did not even live in yet was \u201cwilling to destroy,\u201d according to federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n
According to federal court records, Dang told the undercover law enforcement officer he could launder drug money for a 5% commission and 40% of the profits from the investment vehicle used to clean the money. He used nine holding companies to make
\nreal estate investments in California, other U.S. states and Asia with revenue from illegal drug sales, records show.<\/p>\n
On May 9, 2023, the undercover FBI employee met with Nguyen at a restaurant in the Los Angeles area
\nand negotiated a deal for
\n20 pounds of methamphetamine for $1,400 a pound and the undercover officer put up a $20,000 down
\npayment.<\/p>\n
According to court rec\u00adords, Nguyen texted the agent on May 15, 2023, to set up a 1-kilogram fentanyl deal and that \u201cDylan\u201d would be sent to Hawaii to collect $28,000 from the undercover agent \u2014 $8,000 to pay off the remaining balance of the methamphetamine, and $20,000 for the kilogram of fentanyl. The next day the agent met with Dang at the Honolulu airport with the money. The pair then FaceTimed Nguyen to talk money and illegal drug sales, rec\u00adords show.<\/p>\n
Six days later on May 22, 2023, at an Oahu address, law enforcement said it
\nreceived two bags of fentanyl.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 13, 2024, authorities say the undercover employee set up a meeting with Dang to ask about \u201cDang\u2019s ability to launder drug proceeds.\u201d On March 14, 2024, the undercover picked up Dang from the airport before the pair had dinner at a
\nHonolulu restaurant. \u201cDuring the meal, in a recorded conversation, Dang discussed in detail how he launders money and can even generate revenue on
\nillicit funds through real estate investments,\u201d read an affidavit authored by an FBI agent. \u201cDang showed the (undercover) a list of properties he currently owns, mostly in the Orange County area of California, and is leveraging with illicit funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dang said his investments were\u201clucrative\u201d and the properties were placed in \u201ccorporations to insulate himself so no one can search for what properties he owns,\u201d according to court documents. Dang had \u201calso been involved in real estate in Asia and owns properties throughout the United States.\u201d He claimed he could clean drug proceeds for a 5% commission and 40% of any profits pulled from the laundered money, records show.<\/p>\n
The minimum buy-in for Dang\u2019s services was $50,000, but he allegedly agreed to launder $25,000 provided by the undercover agent.<\/p>\n
On May 3, 2024, using the \u201cdirections and information\u201d provided by Dang, the undercover law enforcement officer deposited $25,000 into an account for Dango Foods LLC. About two days later, Dang deposited \u201ccleaned\u201d funds into a bank account managed by law enforcement.<\/p>\n
On May 8, 2024, law enforcement deposited $1,250 into an account for GOJI Berry Enterprise Inc. at a different bank, to cover Dang\u2019s 5% commission.<\/p>\n
On June 24, 2024, authorities say Dang told the undercover agent that he had access to Nguyen\u2019s supplier of illegal drugs and that the undercover law enforcement agent and Dang should cut Nguyen out.<\/p>\n
The undercover operation involved over $100,000 in payments for drugs intended to be distributed in Hawaii. Dang flew from California to Hawaii on two occasions to pick up over $41,000 in cash drug proceeds from the undercover, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
For three completed drug transactions, Dang acted as the frontman and negotiated the transactions with the undercover agent presenting an array of drugs for sale and using coded drug language in their
\ncommunications.<\/p>\n
During the investigation, the government said it identified nine shell corporations set up by Dang, who facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars through the shell corporations\u2019 associated bank accounts.<\/p>\n
The FBI investigated the case with assistance from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Honolulu Police Department; and
\nOrange County Sheriff\u2019s
\nDepartment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 55-year-old California man was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison for his role in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,128150,14596],"class_list":["post-393278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-crime-in-hawaii","tag-editors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393278","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=393278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}