$15,000 Cache Mailed : Santa Ana Man Jailed in Seizure of Opium

A Santa Ana man has been arrested on suspicion of possession of opium for sale, Costa Mesa police said Friday.

Ly Chao, 28, who came from Laos five years ago, was booked into the Costa Mesa City Jail, where he was being held Friday on $25,000 bail.

Opium is frequently smoked but also may be converted into heroin. The 10 ounces seized were estimated to be worth $15,000 on the street, Costa Mesa police Sgt. Tom Boylan said.

Investigators Watched

Boylan said investigators watched as Chao, during his shift as a delivery man for a florist service, picked up a package containing the opium from his post office box Thursday afternoon.

Chao was arrested an hour later, when Fountain Valley police stopped his car on the Brookhurst Street onramp to the San Diego Freeway.

Boylan said U.S. Customs agents discovered the opium two weeks ago in a package mailed from Thailand and addressed to Chao at the Costa Mesa post office box. He said he didn’t know just where the opium was first found.

Boylan said customs officials notified federal postal inspectors and the Costa Mesa police, who were given the package.

The opium allegedly was rolled flat and shipped in a hollowed-out book. Officers who knew that Chao checked the postal box regularly left the package there, then kept watch until he picked up his mail at about 3:30 p.m.

Boylan said the opium seizure was rare in Orange County and one of the largest ever.

“Most of the opium that’s grown is converted into heroin, because the profits are so tremendous with heroin,” Boylan said. “Most of the (narcotic) demand in this country is for heroin, not opium.”

In fact, so rarely do they deal with opium, Boylan said, that postal officials and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents he contacted Friday morning could not immediately estimate the drug’s value.

“The postal people didn’t know, the DEA didn’t know,” Boylan said Friday. “I had to call their (Los Angeles) office this morning and then they had to check around awhile.”

Boylan said that while it is also illegal to use it in other countries, opium is popular among some Southeast Asian populations. With the recent immigration of Indochinese refugees to the county, law enforcement officers believe they may come across more of the narcotic.