REFUGEES WARY OF BACKLASH IN OPIUM CASE

HICKORY -- The neat little yellow house sits in a working-class
neighborhood on the edge of Hickory off a street bordered by old brick
textile and furniture mills.

It is the kind of place that mill workers have called home for decades. Law
enforcement officials say its latest use was as an opium importing and
processing facility.

The house and three others around Hickory were raided earlier this month in
what officials say is the largest opium case in state history. Five people
have been arrested and an estimated $4 million in opium has been recovered.

All five are Hmong immigrants from Laos. The case has reverberated through
the local Hmong community -- North Carolina's largest -- and all the way
back to Thailand, where local and federal officials say the opium began its
journey to North Carolina.

While police say the investigation continues and could lead to more
arrests, Hmong community activists say they worry that the case could
arouse suspicion and mistrust about the Hmong in Hickory.

"It could lead to a bad reputation for the entire Hmong community," said
Tong Yang, executive director of the United Hmong Association of North
Carolina in Hickory. "It could have a major impact on our community."

When law enforcement officers raided that yellow house Dec. 11, they found
two Hmong refugees using long wooden spoons to stir a great cauldron of
boiling water and cloth heated by a propane burner.

What they were cooking up, officials say, was an opium stew.

By the end of the day, officials had confiscated 20 kilograms of opium
worth an estimated $4 million. Since then, investigators say, they have
found another 20 kilograms.

Authorities believe dope smugglers hooked into the Hmong refugee network
that runs from communities such as Hickory in the United States to Hmong
refugee camps in Thailand.

Opium was soaked into burlap strips, sewed into clothing, then wrapped and
mailed from Thailand to addresses in Hickory. On arrival, the cloth was
boiled to extract the drug, which could then be processed, possibly into
heroin, and shipped out for sale in other cities.

"This is a very large quantity of opium," said postal inspector Charles
Thompson of Raleigh, who headed the postal service side of the
investigation. "It is much more than could be consumed in Hickory, North
Carolina."

Community Tainted?

Hmong leaders in Hickory were equally surprised by the cache, saying they
believe it shows that ringleaders outside the Hmong communities in the
United States and Hickory are involved.

"I don't think there is a Hmong powerful enough to do this amount," Yang said.

The Hmong, originally from highland Laos, supported the United States in
the Vietnam War. They have been migrating to the United States since the
end of the war, settling in California, Minnesota and a few other places
scattered across the country.

Over the past decade, the Catawba Valley has attracted the largest
concentration of Hmong in North Carolina, which has one of the nation's
largest populations of Hmong. Of the estimated 7,000 Hmong living in North
Carolina, about 4,000 live in Catawba and Burke counties.

Law enforcement officials are quick to note that the opium busts do not
appear to indicate a more widespread problem within the local Hmong community.

"We have a very well-established Hmong population," said Sgt. Chris
LaCarter, head of the narcotics and vice unit of the Hickory Police
Department. "This in no way has any relation to the Hmong community as a
whole."

Yang said the success of the Hmong in Hickory may be what attracted the
smugglers. While Hmong communities in other parts of the country have
experienced high unemployment rates and the rise of youth gangs, the Hmong
around Hickory have managed to assimilate with much greater ease.

Hmong eagerly snatched up local mill jobs that did not require specialized
skills. Yang said local Hmong enjoyed nearly full employment until the
recent economic downturn that hit the area's manufacturing jobs
particularly hard.

But even now, Yang said, unemployment among Hmong is in the 5 percent to 10
percent range -- hardly enough to prompt a switch to crime for income.

Local Hmong residents maintain ties to family members back in Laos or
Thailand, regularly exchanging letters and packages.

Yang said smugglers may have figured they could easily slip drugs through
because packages going to Hickory from Thailand have not aroused suspicion
in the past.

"Every family has a cousin or friend in Thailand or Laos," said Spencer T.
Lo, president of Hmong Southeast Puav Pheej Inc. in Hickory. "I still have
three brothers, two sisters and more than 30 cousins in Laos."

Clothes Connection?

Traditional Hmong outfits, which are worn during annual Hmong New Year's
celebrations, are not available in the United States and are regularly
shipped from Laos or Thailand. One of the largest Hmong New Year's
celebrations in the Southeast is run by Lo's group in Hickory; it draws
about 10,000 people per day for several days.

Hmong in Hickory send money back to those in Thailand for the clothes,
providing one of the few sources of income for the thousands of refugees
who remain in refugee camps there.

Yang said Hmong in Hickory are now fearful that they will be placed under
suspicion if they get a package from Thailand.

Yang said he has told relatives in Thailand not to send packages to him for
a while and figures others have done the same, fearing that they may become
targets of the ongoing investigation.

Hmong are also suddenly fearful that they might fall under suspicion for
owning large metal pots and propane burners like the ones used in the opium
scheme. Yang said he owns both, as do most Hmong he knows. Hmong regularly
hold large family gatherings at which food is boiled in those pots, he said.

"If authorities are not careful, this might turn into a racial issue," Yang
said.

A Funny Smell?

The case itself began about six months ago, when a drug-sniffing dog at a
West Coast postal service center detected the opium scent on a package
arriving from Thailand.

Authorities opened an investigation that focused on North Carolina, the
destination of the packages. The investigation grew to include postal
inspectors in Raleigh and the Catawba Valley Drug Task Force, a
multi-agency group that includes federal and local crime fighters.

"We were kind of surprised by it," LaCarter said. "Opium is something that
is not seen in our area."

Investigators were trying to unravel the scheme when Hickory police
responded to a home-invasion robbery and kidnapping late Dec. 7 at a home
occupied by Hmong. Seven or eight intruders were involved in the home
invasion, and police believe they were all Hmong as well. Police now say
that the home invasion may have been an attempt by rivals to steal drugs
and money from the group engaged in the opium trade.

Dec. 11, law enforcement officials set up a sting in which they allowed
some packages to be delivered to the yellow house and two others while they
were under surveillance. Agents then raided the houses.

Arrested and currently held on drug charges are Mang Khang, 39, of Hickory
and Ma Chang, 37, of Hickory. Police later arrested Phoua Khang Yang, 33,
of Hickory, in Newton, charging her with conspiracy to distribute opium.
She had been briefly kidnapped in the home invasion.

Police also arrested Ze Vang, 37, and Chue Yang, 37, both of Long View.
They are being held in the Catawba County Detention Center along with the
other three.

Law enforcement officials said the investigation continues and could lead
to more arrests in the United States and possible action in Thailand.

"This investigation is in its early stages," said Rick Schwein, supervisor
of the FBI's Asheville office, which is part of the Catawba Drug Task Force.