CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Smuggling Case Won’t Be Dropped

In a case worthy of a James Bond thriller, a federal court has refused to dismiss indictments against three men accused of smuggling heroin inside dead goldfish. The action in U.S. District Court kept alive the government’s case against Leung Tak Lun, Wong Tse Keung and Andrew Kit Wong, who are charged with three counts of conspiracy and accused of importing heroin-filled condoms inside goldfish. An earlier trial ended in mistrial after prosecution witness Wang Zong Xiao admitted perjury and claimed that he had, in China, been coerced and tortured into confessing. He has applied for political asylum. The alleged conspiracy surfaced in Shanghai. The defendants and others were arrested in that city in an alleged scheme to hide condoms filled with heroin in the sewn-up bellies of large goldfish sent to the United States addressed to “Goldfish Aquarium” in San Francisco. Authorities arranged a controlled shipment of the heroin to San Francisco to see where it would go, leading to the arrest of the defendants. American and Chinese law enforcement agents cooperated in the case, which involved the People’s Republic of China, the Royal Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department.