A group of San Gabriel Valley residents are facing federal charges related to their alleged scheme to transport hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine from Los Angeles County to New Zealand and Australia.
A 27-count federal indictment led to the arrests of five people, while a sixth is in immigration custody in Louisiana and a seventh remains a fugitive, the United States Department of Justice said in a news release.
The five people arrested Wednesday morning are:
- Yangqiang Chen, 45, of Monterey Park
- Jie Chen, 40, of Rosemead
- MeiMei Chen, 41, of Rosemead
- Guorong He, 50 of Rosemead
- Yien He, 32, of Rosemead
They will be arraigned in Santa Ana on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Zuxing Lin, 44, of Rosemead remains on the run, while Xingyun Chen, 54, is in immigration custody in Louisiana, the DOJ said.
According to prosecutors, the group received online orders for items like wine opener sets and drive shafts, in which they hid the meth.
Photos provided by the DOJ show drugs were also packed into dolls and hollowed-out books.
They then packaged that meth at a home in Monterey Park and elsewhere before taking the packages to “UPS stores and international shipping companies so they could be shipped to foreign drug customers,” the release said.
“As part of this investigation, law enforcement has seized 91 packages of methamphetamine destined for foreign countries. In those packages, law enforcement seized almost 200 kilograms of methamphetamine,” the DOJ said. “The value of the drugs seized, if sold in Australia and New Zealand, exceeds $20 million, according to law enforcement estimates.”
On Wednesday alone, authorities found 40 pounds of meth, more than $100,000 in cash and more than 1,000 gift cards at three locations in Monterey Park and Rosemead, according to the DOJ.
If convicted of all charges, each person could be sentenced to life in federal prison. At a minimum, they would be sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.