Federal authorities say they’re looking for a Long Beach man suspected of exporting large amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine overseas as part of a transnational drug trafficking organization.
Narongsak Champy, 28, was charged in a federal grand indictment, along with three other Southern California men; Hoang Xuan Le, 42, of Tustin; Tri Cao Buinguyen, 38, of Garden Grove, and Trung Buinguyen, 40, of Lakewood with one count each of conspiracy to export controlled substances and one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
Le and Tri Buinguyen, who were arrested Thursday on suspicion of running a transnational drug trafficking organization, are charged with one additional count of distribution of methamphetamine. Authorities, meanwhile, continue to search for both Champy and Trung Buinguyen. Each defendant faces life in federal prison if they’re convicted of all charges.
According to the indictment, Champy and his alleged coconspirators had ties with members of a drug trafficking organization in Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea and started helping them export drugs from the United States in 2017.
Over the next five years, Champy, Le, Tri Buinguyen and Trung Buinguyen used phones that had military-grade encryption software to communicate with the overseas drug traffickers and used fake names and businesses to further help their scheme and get shipments through customs agents, according to the indictment.
While Le and Tri Buinguyen gave the orders of where the shipments were supposed to go, Champy and Trung Buingyen would make the deliveries to the shipping location, according to the indictment.
In 2021, Le and Tri Buinguyen orchestrated a bulk shipment of 330 pounds of methamphetamine concealed in food storage buckets for export to Papua New Guinea, according to the indictment. Between August and September of 2022, Tri Buinguyen allegedly arranged for the export to New Zealand of more than 70 pounds of methamphetamine concealed in meals ready-to-eat packets.
As part of their investigation, authorities said they have so far seized more than 1,600 pounds of methamphetamine and more than 200 pounds of cocaine, which they valued anywhere between $65 million to $160 million.