Police Arrest Vietnamese Man, 69 : Suspected Opium Den Located

A 69-year-old Vietnamese man who allegedly ran an opium den where the windows were stained from an “oily opium residue” was arrested at a Garden Grove apartment on suspicion of sale of the narcotic, Westminster police said Tuesday.

The opium arrest was considered extremely rare by police and Southeast Asian community leaders.

“It’s very, very unusual and, really, the first time I’ve ever heard of such an arrest,” said Nguyen Long, who heads the California branch of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church of America from its headquarters in Santa Fe Springs.

Westminster police arrested Ngoi Nguyen at his Garden Grove apartment, where they found 12 grams of opium, $15,000 in cash and paraphernalia used to smoke the drug, Westminster Police Officer Tom Broderson said.

Police also cited and released Thong Dinh, 65, and Dan Nguyen, 38, both of Anaheim, and Cong Nguyen, 26, of Santa Ana, for being in a place where narcotics were being used.

Based on neighbors’ complaints of suspected drug activity, the site was discovered Monday in a Vietnamese neighborhood on the border of Garden Grove and Westminster. Broderson said Westminster police received a citizen’s tip about 6:30 p.m., which led them to an apartment in the 10400 block of Westminster Avenue.

The apartment was darkened by an oily black resin on the inside of the windows caused by the smoking of opium, said Westminster Detective Marcus Frank, the department’s expert on Asian crime.

Frank said he believed the last arrest in the county involving opium in occurred about 8 years ago in Westminster’s Little Saigon.

“Most of the people using (opium) are the really older ones. These are the ones who became addicted way back in Asia,” Frank said.

To the older generation, opium use was prevalent and socially acceptable in Southeast Asian countries in the early 1920s and 1930s. But government attitudes changed, and in South Vietnam, for example, the use of opium was later outlawed.

“It was more common in the early years to use opium, and if older people are involved here, it’s a carry-over from the older generation,” said Christine Vu-Dinh, a prominent Santa Ana attorney.

“This is very rare and unusual,” Broderson said, noting that investigators will be looking for other dens. “We’ve run across one, so there might be more out there.”

The amount seized is worth about $4,800, Frank said. Opium sells on the streets for about $400 a gram, he said.

Opium is made from the juice of the opium poppy and is grown in Laos and Thailand.

Opiates, medicines containing opium or any of its derivatives, are powerful analgesics that are prescribed by physicians for patients with severe pain. The drugs codeine, heroin and morphine are made from or contain opium. These drugs are also sometimes used to produce sleep and to control coughing and diarrhea. In many people, however, the continued use of opiates leads to addiction to the drugs.