BLOODY MASS MURDER STEMS FROM DRUG TRADE

A mass murder in a small North Carolina town turned into a modern
morality play as facts emerged this week.

Authorities have determined that drug trafficking was behind the
slaughter of four members of a Conover family March 12.

The tragedy shows that delving into a dirty, illegal business can
have unintended, deadly consequences.

While Brian Tzeo has not been charged with any crime, the Catawba
County Sheriff's Office says he admitted his role in a drug-smuggling
ring, receiving opium mailed from Thailand. Tzeo wasn't home when
authorities say an associate, Chiew Chan Saevang, went to his house
to steal opium and killed Tzeo's wife and three children.

Events took another bizarre turn Wednesday. Saevang and his
girlfriend, Yer Yang, also an alleged member of the drug ring,
crashed their car in Utah during a pursuit and died by
murder-suicide, the Washington County, Utah, Sheriff's Office said.

Theirs were the fifth and sixth deaths in this horrific affair.
Neighbors of the Tzeo family and members of the area's Southeast
Asian immigrant communities expressed shock, both at the crime itself
and at the alleged drug connection. Tzeo and his wife came to the
United States from Laos in the 1980s.

"I just don't understand," said Tong Yang, a leader in Catawba
County's Hmong community. "Why would someone do something that would
jeopardize his family?" "I regret everything," Tzeo told the
Associated Press on Thursday. "It's something I never should have
gotten involved in. It's hard to live with this." The regret is too
late. Maybe Tzeo saw an opportunity to make a lot of money but never
thought about the risks to his family.

Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman said opium or heroin, which is
made from opium, worth $160,000 to $200,000 was stolen from the Tzeo
house. Some people are willing to kill for that much money -- willing
to kill even a 4-year-old boy, who was the youngest victim of this
crime. Neighbors would not have been safe, either, if any had been
unlucky enough to witness the attack.

It provides good reason for neighbors to report suspected drug
activity to authorities before something like this happens.

And it offers a painful moral: Getting mixed up in a dirty business
can claim a swift and terrible price.