Little Saigon Threats Investigated by FBI, Westminster Police

The FBI and Westminster police are jointly investigating extortion threats that have apparently been made against merchants and individuals in Orange County’s Little Saigon business district, Police Chief James I. Cook said Thursday.

While an FBI spokesman refused to comment, federal sources said the investigation began two weeks ago and demonstrates the agency’s widening interest in pursuing crime in Vietnamese exile communities.

Orange County is home to about 100,000 Vietnamese refugees in what is believed to be the largest concentration outside of Vietnam.

Beyond confirming that an investigation is under way, Cook declined to comment.

Years of Reports

For years, the FBI has received reports from local police departments about extortion of private individuals and merchants in the Vietnamese community.

Politically motivated attacks have also occurred in the county over the years, involving Vietnamese accused of being friendly with the Communist government of Vietnam.

One federal source, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said: “The FBI now is interested in the terrorism behind some of the ideological groups going around the country and asking Vietnamese refugees to give donations to support guerrilla groups, who they say are fighting communism in the jungles of Vietnam or Laos.”

‘Or Suffer . . . Consequences’

The source added: “Local merchants are also targeted by the same people and are told to give money or suffer severe consequences.”

Vietnamese community and business leaders reacted with surprise when told of the investigation. They said patriotic Vietnamese organizations have been less active in trying to raise money in recent years.

Dr. Co Pham, president of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, said: “It’s been a long time, possibly five to six years ago, that different groups were asking for money during major campaign drives.”

So far, the investigation has reportedly been limited to Westminster, but Garden Grove police recently asked to be included. A spokesman for that department, however, could not be reached for comment.

An FBI agent who speaks Vietnamese and a Westminster police officer have been going “store to store” seeking cooperation from local Vietnamese merchants, said one investigative source, who added, “So far, they haven’t been able to come up with anything.”

The investigation could last five months, sources said.

In a related development, the U.S. Department of Commerce is separately investigating the proliferation of export companies shipping humanitarian items to Vietnam.

Brooks Ohlson, a spokesman for the department’s Office of Export Enforcement in Burbank, would say only that his office has “ongoing investigations” in the Southern California area that he cannot comment about because of department policy.

However, an investigative source with the department said the agency has become concerned about the growth of Vietnamese export shipping firms since an Oct. 14, 1988, seizure of a cargo of “humanitarian items” at Los Angeles International Airport--which turned out to include gold bars, stereos and electronics equipment.

Without an export license, only humanitarian items--food, toiletries, medicine and clothing--that are valued at $400 or less can be shipped once a month by a private citizen to a relative in Vietnam.

“Our concern,” the source said, “is on sophisticated technology like computer equipment or computer chips being sent to Vietnam, and from there to other Communist countries.

“The problem is, we don’t really know what is being sent under the heading of humanitarian aid. But we want to find out.”