2 Suspects Arrested in Armed Robbery of Home

Police arrested two suspected gang members Friday in connection with at least one recent home invasion-style robbery.

Van Minh Ho, 20, a transient, and Hoa Duc Bui, 19, of New Orleans, were arrested at a shopping center at 9200 Bolsa Ave. and were booked into Orange County Jail on charges of armed robbery. Three other suspects in the July 23 holdup of a family of six are still at large, said Westminster Police Lt. Andrew Hall.

Police allege that a Vietnamese gang broke into a home on the 15400 block of Balboa Street and forced the residents to lie on the floor at gunpoint while they ransacked the house. The gang escaped with $4,000 in jewelry and cash, Hall said. No one was injured.

The victims, whose names were withheld, ranged in age from 3 to 53.

Westminster police have investigated at least three similar home invasion-style robberies in the past two months, Hall said.

Unlike other gangs that establish territorial boundaries by neighborhoods, Hall said, Vietnamese gangs tend to be connected with international, underground crime rings and change members often.

“These are thugs who drift around the country and think nothing of driving from here to Houston and back again, in the same week, to commit crimes,” Hall said.

In a 1989 Times Orange County Poll, 41% of Vietnamese people surveyed listed crime and gangs as the biggest problems in their communities.

In 1986, a Santa Ana woman was shot to death in her bed as her husband and their 12 children were held hostage in the living room by five masked gunmen who ransacked and robbed the home. In the last five years, more than 30 such robberies were reported in the county, most of them in Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster.

Hall said that lately the robberies have become too numerous to tally.