OPIUM BUST BIGGEST IN STATE HISTORY

Police Seize Drugs With Street Value Of More Than $4 Million, Add New Twist
To Recent Home Invasion, Kidnapping

Hickory police seized what the State Bureau of Investigation is calling the
largest opium bust in state history - with a street value of more than $4
million - and added a new twist to a home invasion that occurred Dec. 7. A
group of residents who were tied up and one who was kidnapped in the early
morning hours of Dec. 7 have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to
traffic opium by possession. All were charged with one count of that felony
and are in Catawba County Jail on $100,000 bond. A total of 20 kilos -
about 45 pounds - of opium was seized. Arrested were: Mang Khang, 39, and
Ma Chang, 37, of 301 Eighteenth St., SW; Ze Vang, 37, and Chue Yang, 37,
both of 155 Thirty-first St., SW, Long View; and Phoua Khang Yang, 33, of
411 Eighth Avenue Drive, NW. Phoua Yang was the resident who was kidnapped
from the house on Eighth Avenue Drive. When Narcotics Investigator Sgt.
Chris LaCarter talked to criminal investigation division officers about the
home invasion and they told him the names of those involved, he said he
knew they sounded familiar. The home invasion could be related to the drug
trafficking, LaCarter said. Police have not made any arrests in connection
with the Dec. 7 incident. LaCarter said his department received a tip six
months ago that there was drug activity involving those residents. "It's
been at least a year-and-a-half-long operation," LaCarter said. The opium
was coming from Sarabui, Thailand in liquid form, LaCarter said. The
contact in Thailand would soak burlap pieces with liquid opium, then sew
the pieces into the seams of new clothing, which was wrapped in plastic and
then in white mailing packages, LaCarter said. Each package contained about
2 kilos of opium, he said. He declined to say how the person in Thailand
was related to those arrested. Since international packages go through
Greensboro, Hickory police asked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and
U.S. Customs Service to hold the packages. The first few packages were
unwrapped and tested when Wake County Sheriff's Office K-9 unit dogs
alerted on them, LaCarter said. After tests came back positive for opium,
Hickory police delivered the packages and executed a search warrant where
they found the opium being processed in the Long View house, LaCarter said.
"The opium was extracted from the clothing, solidified and shipped
throughout the United States," said Police Chief Floyd Lucas, who said
other arrests were expected in different parts of the nation. He would only
say that shipments went out to the Midwest and Northeastern parts of the
nation. To extract the opium, the clothes were heated with water in big
pots and the opium, a black liquid substance, would float to the surface,
said LaCarter. "They would scoop it up before it hardened," he said. The
opium would be placed aside to dry into solid black globs that, from
pictures taken by Hickory police, looked like large drops of tar. The opium
could then be smoked, injected and refined into heroin, LaCarter said,
adding that the operation in Hickory simply sent out the hardened opium and
was basically a middleman-type of setup. When the search warrant was
executed at the Long View house, two children were found in the home. They
were originally sent to Catawba County Department of Social Services, then
placed with other family members. At the home on Eighteenth Street, SW,
three children were found and DSS placed them in foster care, LaCarter
said. All suspects were arrested at their homes with the exception of Phoua
Vang, who was arrested by Catawba County Sheriff's officers at 1947 Jarrett
Farm Road in Newton. "Phoua was there hiding, I don't know if from the
kidnappers or us," said LaCarter, who added that they found additional
packages of clothing soaked with opium, which had originally been mailed to
the Long View and Hickory residences. Those arrested had a first court
appearance Wednesday and it could be a few weeks before their next court
hearing, LaCarter said.