4 Arrested After Package of Opium Is Found in Mail

A two-pound package of raw opium sent via international mail to Laguna Beach led to the arrest this week of four Orange County residents, police said.

Laguna Beach residents Beate Irmagard Gutlhuber, 28, and Ramazan Ali Moradi, 39; Jalali Mosayyed, 42, of Yorba Linda; and Keyvan Pourang, 36, of Fullerton, were being held in lieu of $200,000 bail on drug possession and conspiracy charges, police said.

The contraband, with an estimated street value of $40,000, originated in Europe and was addressed to Gutlhuber, authorities said. U.S. Customs officials intercepted the package and began an investigation with Postal Service inspectors and Orange County Sheriff’s Department narcotics officers. Investigators did not say what made the package seem suspicious.

They began following Gutlhuber after she retrieved a package-arrival slip at her post office box in Laguna Beach, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Ron Wilkerson said. Wilkerson said Gutlhuber then passed the claim slip to the other three, who picked up the parcel.

The three men were arrested Wednesday outside the post office as they left with the opium. Gutlhuber was arrested shortly after at her home in the 32000 block of Virgina Street, police said.

All four suspects were being held Friday at the Orange County Jail. Wilkerson said the brown, sticky block of opium would likely have been converted to a more potent and profitable form, such as heroin, for easier resale.