San Jose: Crackdown on Vietnamese gang leads to cop's arrest, drugs, weapons, alligator
By Robert Salonga, rsalonga@bayareanewsgroup.com
POSTED: 08/24/2016 10:42:07 AM PDT | UPDATED: ABOUT 19 HOURS AGO

San Jose: Fed hearing reveals coffee-shop gambling ring was gang-run, undone by wiretaps
SAN JOSE -- A crackdown on Vietnamese-American organized crime in San Jose spurred police raids stretching from the Bay Area to the Deep South, yielding nearly two dozen arrests -- including a San Jose police officer -- and a cache of drugs, weapons, gambling machines and one alligator.

They were among the results of a six-month probe spearheaded by the SJPD gang investigations unit targeting a sophisticated gambling, extortion and drug trafficking ring run out of some of the myriad Vietnamese cafes that dot the city. San Jose police Chief Eddie Garcia, joined by officials with the FBI and DEA, detailed the operation in a news conference Wednesday, one day after the shocking announcement of the arrest of Officer Derrick Antonio for collaborating with gang members.

City Councilman Manh Nguyen voiced gratitude that police continue to tackle a problem he says has long plagued his community.

"We've been hearing about the Vietnamese gangs and illegal activities in coffee shops for a long time, and I'm glad they arrested these people," he said. "I'm calling for Vietnamese residents to fully cooperate with the police to fight crime."

Garcia lauded the cooperation of the multiple agencies involved, and the success of the investigation in the face of manpower shortages up and down the department. He addressed the issue head on, as SJPD is currently encouraging the City Council to declare a state of emergency that would allow him to override a police labor contract and swiftly reallocate officers to street patrols.

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"This is yet another example of how this department works tirelessly, regardless of the issues that we face, for our community," he said.

Police announced 23 people have been arrested and booked on charges ranging from extortion, public corruption, narcotic trafficking, assault, illegal gun possession and conspiracy. Two of them were arrested in Anaheim by Orange County sheriff's deputies. Six more suspects remain at large and are being sought on conspiracy, accessory after the fact, narcotics and gambling charges.

Police believe the gang may be linked to at least two homicides.

"Operation: Gang of Thrones" was described as a "criminal-conspiracy investigation" that began in March and culminated Tuesday with officers and federal agents serving search and arrest warrants at locations in San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Fremont, Anaheim and an undisclosed site in Louisiana.

To carry out the wide-reaching mission -- entailing 35 search warrants -- SJPD tapped an array of personnel from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, District Attorney's Office, Santa Clara and Milpitas police, the Orange County Sheriff's Department, and Louisiana state police. They targeted homes and businesses.

Photos of contraband seized during a Vietnamese organized-crime crackdown, including an alligator, are displayed at a San Jose Police Department press
Photos of contraband seized during a Vietnamese organized-crime crackdown, including an alligator, are displayed at a San Jose Police Department press conference on Aug. 24, 2016. (Robert Salonga/Bay Area News Group)
Details about the alligator, including its condition and its connection to the alleged conspiracy, were not disclosed.

Easily the most startling revelation was the arrest of Antonio, a nine-year department veteran, on allegations he leaked sensitive police intelligence -- described generally as police reports and other data -- to Vietnamese gang members. Antonio, 34, is free on bail after being booked on five counts of unauthorized computer access and one count of being an accessory to gang crimes.

In June, in the middle of the investigation, Antonio was placed on paid administrative leave. He was arrested Tuesday after prosecutors decided there was enough evidence for criminal charges against him. Garcia said a motive behind the alleged acts was not immediately clear, nor was how or if the information might have been used by the gang.

"As distasteful as it has been to have identified and criminally investigated one of our own, it is a testament to the integrity of the San Jose Police Department (that) once his involvement was known, they did not hesitate or shy away from bringing a fellow member of this department, who tarnished the badge we wear so proudly, to justice," Garcia said.

The union representing the police rank and file similarly lamented the arrest of one of its members.

"Today is a sad day for all of us who proudly and honorably don our SJPD uniform each day to serve the residents of our city," reads a statement from the San Jose Police Officers' Association. "If the accusations leveled against Derrick Antonio are found to be true, then he ought to be held accountable for his actions and for disparaging our profession."

Police said three of the arrested suspects are associated with the Duong Cafe on Senter Road and allegedly "conspired to bribe a uniformed member of the San Jose Police Department." A source familiar with the investigation contends that the officer -- who was not named but is not Antonio -- refused the bribe.

"Gang of Thrones" is just one of an array of periodic enforcement sweeps that federal agents and local police have conducted targeting a Hydra-like operation that methodically recovers from each blow.

In March 2015, the SJPD vice unit led "Operation Omni," a multiagency crackdown on 11 cafes hosting illegal electronic gambling machines -- some hidden in a backroom and some out in the open -- where more than 100 machines were confiscated.

The gambling machines are the centerpiece of many of the extortion rackets alleged against Vietnamese-American organized crime, which have spurred territorial struggles over cash flow and control over whose machines are operated at which cafes. That's not to mention the quality-of-life problems -- addiction, drugs and possible prostitution -- the illegal gambling attracts.

Those conflicts have been known to turn violent, with police making a public push last month for tips in four unsolved homicides in which the victims were ambushed and shot dead, with the unknown shooters suspected of being affiliated with Vietnamese gangs.

One unsolved killing had particular resonance: the coldblooded Dec. 4, 2014 shooting of 41-year-old Thach Thiet Dien Duong outside the Golden King Teahouse, captured entirely on surveillance video, which sowed the seeds of "Operation Omni."

The last high-profile crackdown before that occurred in November 2013, when federal agents capped a two-year wiretap operation to break up a cafe-based gambling ring in San Jose. That yielded the arrest and eventual conviction of ringleader Lennie Luan Le, who federal prosecutors contended was the ringleader and enforcer for a scheme that pushed specific gambling machines on the cafes.

Le, who authorities said was a lieutenant for the Viet Nation street gang based out of East San Jose, was convicted by a federal jury and sentenced in June to 33 months in prison.

Antonio is the second Santa Clara County law-enforcement officer in the past year to be accused of using protected criminal intelligence for illicit use: In October, a Santa Clara County jail deputy was arrested on suspicion of eight misdemeanor counts of accessing confidential records from the Criminal Justice Information Control database to get information about "people he had personal relationships with," according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. Court documents from those charges show that investigators suspect the deputy associated with a known member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang.

Staff writers Ramona Giwargis and Mark Gomez contributed to this report. Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.

ITEMS SEIZED IN GANG SWEEP

During an SJPD-led crackdown on Vietnamese organized crime this week, authorities seized the following:

Five handguns
69 gambling machines
Over $200,000 cash
Body armor
Jewelry, cell phones, computers and financial records
4,000 Ecstasy pills
300 Xanax pills
200 Molly pills
Over 600 pounds of marijuana, including 420 pounds that were intercepted in Louisiana en route from San Jose
Several vehicles, including a vehicle with a hidden compartment containing $100,000 cash
Undisclosed amount of illegal steroids
One alligator about four feet long

Good the VC in those areas make the LCN guys look like cub scouts, bunch of animals

Back in the '90s, someone pretty well affiliated with Bloods in Sac told me that the southeast Asians were the sleeping giant on the streets. Everyone knew to tread carefully with them. A couple of weeks later, this happened.

Can't speak for San Jose, but a lot of the Vietnamese areas of Sacramento in the '90s eventually became dominated by Mexican immigrants. Not sure where the Vietnamese went. Maybe San Jose.

Anyone got a list of active vietnamese gangs?

i've heard of VN, who this article is about.

Most don't even have names. Even the larger gangs like ABZ are very loosely affiliated. It's like the mafia. You have younger street guys and older racketeers. As they get older, they buy businesses and become semi legit. The business will then front for drugs, weapons, and gambling along with other crimes