Local News in Brief : Heroin Seized; 4 Arrested

Four people were arrested and 77 pounds of heroin worth about $50 million were seized after a two-week undercover investigation by federal agents and several local police departments, officials said Tuesday.

The confiscation was the largest single seizure of heroin in Southern California this year and doubles the amount seized by the Los Angeles office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in all of last year, DEA spokesman Ralph Lochridge said.

The “China white” heroin was discovered June 16 at Los Angeles International Airport by U.S. Customs inspectors in a routine check of cargo coming from Hong Kong, Lochridge said. The drugs had been hidden among 50 boxes of rechargeable can openers that came in on a Northwest Airlines flight, he said.

A stakeout by DEA and Customs agents with assistance from Monterey Park, Baldwin Park and Alhambra police led to the arrest of Alice Lai, 37, of San Gabriel; Jain Qui Lee, 32, Hong Kong; Chi Wai Wong, 44, Macao, and Che Fun Lee, 26, of San Francisco. They were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute heroin.

Undercover investigators watched as the drugs were picked up at the airport by a trucking firm and transferred to a San Gabriel storage facility where the boxes of can openers and drugs were then placed in a storage locker, he said.