Bail Denied After Arms Ring Suspect Surrenders

A 20-year-old UC Irvine student accused of running a sophisticated ring that offered to sell more than two dozen machine guns, shotguns and illegally enhanced automatic rifles to street gangs was denied bail Thursday, a few hours after surrendering to federal authorities.

Trung “Alex” Minh Dao, a geography major, was ordered to remain in custody pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for next month.

For three days, Dao was a fugitive from federal agents who on Monday smashed an alleged weapons-trafficking ring that sold 25 weapons during a five-month investigation to agents posing as gang members.

Dao’s brother, Tri Minh Dao, 21, and four other young men were arrested Monday and charged with conspiracy to sell illegal arms. A seventh man, 24-year-old Sang Ly Thong of Alhambra, remains at large.

At a court hearing Thursday, Assistant U.S. Atty. John C. Rayburn Jr. urged Magistrate Judge Elgin Edwards to deny Trung Dao’s bail request.

Rayburn described Dao as “the most dangerous criminal this court will see.”

“He is the one who has the connection to the gun suppliers,” Rayburn said.

The prosecutor provided photographs of Dao and other family members posing with automatic and semiautomatic weapons. Also in the photographs were Dao’s elder brother and their father, Q. Dao, who was present in court.

But Dao’s attorney, Ken Miller, painted a different picture of his client. He told the magistrate that Dao had been a Loara High School honors student and a National Honor Society member, for which he was listed in “Who’s Who in American High Schools.”

Miller described Dao as a full-time UCI student who also worked with his brother in Teletech Paging Inc., their father’s company in Anaheim.