Festival Attracts Criminal Fugitives : Refuge: Southeast Asian gang members seek unofficial sanctuary in Carthage, Mo., during Catholic celebration.

Every year while the pious seek reaffirmation of their faith, some of the most notorious Southeast Asian gang members in the country seek unofficial sanctuary in Carthage, Mo., at the nation’s largest Catholic celebration for the Vietnamese.

The administration of holy sacraments and conversions to Christ are occasionally interrupted by the metallic ratchet of stainless-steel handcuffs and the brief litany of Miranda rights.

In 1988, big-city detectives armed with mug shots and tips from informants began staking out Carthage, a quiet town of 11,000 in the Ozark Mountains that burgeons to almost 50,000 during Marian Days, a festival held every August by 170 Vietnamese monks.

“It’s like walking into an apple orchard and picking the bad apples,” said Officer Al Lotz, a Houston police detective who has gone to the celebration twice.

With the help of Carthage police, authorities have developed information on the whereabouts of major suspects, and officers have arrested 15 to 20 Southeast Asian criminals and gang members.

On Aug. 18, 1989, Hung Van Chung, wanted on three killings in Memphis, Tenn., was apprehended on the festival grounds. Police also developed information on Minh Duytong Nguyen, a murder suspect known as Tony Playboy. He was eventually arrested in Canada in January.

Playboy, who appeared on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” was sought in connection with a shooting that left two dead and three wounded at a Houston sandwich shop. He had been with Chung shortly before Chung’s arrest.

This year at the festival, Cao Tri Nguyna, of Jefferson Parrish, La., was arrested in connection with a string of armed robberies. Police say seven or eight less-dangerous suspects also were captured.

Lotz said highly mobile Vietnamese street gang members from Houston, Minnesota, California, Louisiana, Illinois and Kansas have attended Marian Days, most of them in search of a refuge and a place to link up with other gang members.

Set in the rolling hills of southwest Missouri, Carthage, with its enormous Vietnamese festival, was a logical choice.

“The ones who come are not trying to take us over,” said the Rev. Joseph Huu, secretary for Marian Days. “They often come for the celebration. We worry, but we have good friends at the Police Department and a lot of people who come for the religious purpose want it safe.”

Dedicated to Mother Mary, the celebration is held every year during the first half of August. A small Catholic order of Vietnamese brothers--the Congregation of the Mother Coredemptrix--is host of the event. The monks are the town’s total permanent population of Southeast Asians.

Marian Days, which began in 1979, now attracts 35,000 people, mostly Catholic Vietnamese from around the nation. For four days, they participate in religious seminars, masses, colorful processions and feasts on the grounds of the brotherhood’s seminary, a converted junior college campus.

On the 20-acre grounds, a horseshoe-shaped configuration of tents shelters more than a dozen restaurants and additional displays by the church and Vietnamese organizations. It has grown into a huge reunion and celebration of Vietnamese resettlement in the United States after the Vietnam War.

“People have learned to enjoy this even in ol’ redneck southwest Missouri,” said Carthage Police Detective Robert W. Harmon. “I enjoy it myself. On Saturday night there is a parade with costumes, flags, banners and papier-mache dragons. It’s a different sensation.”

But three or four years ago, Carthage police started noticing something about the festival they did not like--an influx of young Asian men whose motivation appeared to be something other than spiritual. Coinciding with their arrival, Harmon said, was a jump in the recovery of stolen cars and reports of extortion attempts.

At about the same time, Lotz and Detective Phil G. Hannum of the Falls Church Police Department outside Washington, wondered where some of their Vietnamese gang members were going in August. They found out when Carthage police contacted them.

“With further inquiry we learned that possibly some gang members were starting to attend the event,” said Police Chief Edward A. Ellefsen, who supervises 23 officers. “We coordinated with some Asian gang investigators and found out that our suspicions were true.”

Ellefsen said he eventually sought help from Lotz and Hannum, who specialize in Southeast Asian crime and are active in the International Assn. of Asian Crime Investigators.

Soon, Lotz and Hannum brought in collections of mug shots, intelligence on Asian gangs, and helped Carthage police with security. Roadblocks were set up to check for weapons and suspects. In addition, mug shots were put on display on police station bulletin boards so people at the festival could help make identifications.

Without their help, Chung, who was wanted for murder in Tennessee, might not have been apprehended at the festival. Harmon said a Carthage officer had just seen Chung’s mug shot shortly before he was spotted in a vehicle as it passed the Marian Days checkpoint.

Chung was arrested right after he arrived at a restaurant on the grounds.