Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 20, 1995 TAG: 9510200031
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Mott said Chin Vee "Eric" Choong was a flight risk and an example of the growing danger of heroin smuggling.
The investigation of the Far East heroin trafficking began in 1991 when an informant tipped the Drug Enforcement Administration about the ring and helped the DEA infiltrate it. In 1992, the Customs Service stumbled upon a shipment of heroin, tracing it as it made its way to a post office box in Louisa, where the owner of a local Chinese restaurant picked up the parcel for delivery to New York.
Authorities then began seeking Chin and six other men they believe operated the ring, shipping the drug into the United States through post office boxes in Louisa, New York and other areas.
The estimated $24 million worth of heroin seized in Louisa was only a fraction of the illegal drugs that were to be smuggled into the United States, according to a federal indictment.
The suspects, most of them citizens of Malaysia and Thailand, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Roanoke in 1993. That indictment was sealed until September, when Chin was arrested in New York. The other six have not been captured.
Chong Yeek Y, owner of the China Wok restaurant, previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to import heroin and is awaiting sentencing.
Chin, 28, is charged with importing heroin, conspiracy to import heroin and conspiracy to distribute heroin.
Magistrate B. Waugh Crigler said Chin will have to find a place to live in Charlottesville and remain there in the custody of his mother under house arrest. Chin will have to provide a $100,000 cash bond; his mother, also a Malaysian citizen, will have to surrender her passport.
Mott said it will take several days for Chin to comply with the conditions of the release order.
Chin's attorney, Lawrence Silverman, said he comes from a family in Malaysia that has been in the tin mining business for many generations and he is not a flight risk. Chin's mother and sister were in the courtroom.
``They want to be here, they want to face the charges, and they want to clear this up,'' Silverman said.
Silverman pointed out that Chin was not trying to hide his identity when he returned to the United States in September.
The indictment charges that the ring members planned to smuggle in a shipment of 140 kilograms - 308 pounds - and had another 100 kilograms waiting to be smuggled in from Canada.
Mott said the heroin seizure in Louisa apparently is the largest in Virginia.
``There is a concern nationwide of increased heroin usage,'' Mott said after the detention hearing.
Al Henley, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Roanoke, said the heroin smuggling networks are growing and making the drug cheaper and more readily available.
by CNB