Alleged Boss of Thai Drug Ring Arrested : Narcotics: Federal officials say his operation brought $5 million a month of purified heroin into the United States.

Federal agents have arrested a Pacoima man they describe as the head of a major Thai drug ring that for the past decade smuggled $5 million a month of purified “China white” heroin into the United States.

Surin Dajdumrongwood, 50, who agents said once lived in the Hollywood Hills and is a well-known figure in Los Angeles’ Thai community, was charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute heroin after his May 31 arrest, said Ralph B. Lochridge, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles.

Dajdumrongwood, a U.S. citizen, headed a ring of eight to 10 Thais who purchased heroin in Bangkok, Thailand, and smuggled the narcotic into Los Angeles in airline luggage and in hollowed-out rattan furniture aboard container ships, Lochridge said.

China white, refined from poppies in the Golden Triangle region where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar converge, is preferred by many addicts for its purity, agents said. A pound sells on the street in the United States for $125,000, Lochridge said.

Also arrested was Udom Phadungphant, 47, of Hollywood, described as an illegal Thai immigrant and Dajdumrongwood’s top lieutenant. Both men were being held without bail Monday at the Federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

Lochridge said Dajdumrongwood has been under investigation for 10 years. He was arrested after agents were “able to penetrate inside his organization,” said Lochridge, who declined to elaborate.

A DEA agent involved in the arrest said Dajdumrongwood arrived in the United States from Thailand about 20 years ago and worked at a series of odd jobs, including parking attendant. After getting involved in the heroin trade, he rose to become a top-level dealer, said the agent, who declined to be identified.

“He turned out to be a good businessman,” the agent said.

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Until late 1993, Dajdumrongwood lived in a three-story home near Lake Hollywood, frequented Hollywood restaurants and nightspots, and drove a Mercedes convertible or a Jaguar, the agent said. After that, either because he needed quick cash or he realized he was under surveillance, Dajdumrongwood moved to Pacoima and began “driving a low-key Nissan Pathfinder,” the agent said.

The drug agent said Dajdumrongwood, who has no previous arrests, is believed to own a Thai barbecue restaurant near Universal City. Lochridge compared him to John Gotti, the New York Mafia boss who was convicted of murder and racketeering in 1992.

“If you had a problem, you’d go to him,” said the agent. “If you were fearful or you were in trouble with another Thai, you’d go to see him and he’d clear things for you.”

The agent said heroin smuggled by Dajdumrongwood’s ring was sold to addicts locally and “all around the United States.” With his arrest, the ring has been “dismantled and disrupted,” Lochridge said.

Dajdumrongwood was arrested with the aid of agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the state Department of Justice and the Monterey Park Police Department, which has officers who are specialists in Asian crime.