By Paul Purpura, The Times-Picayune
Just hours after he rejected a plea offer and jury selection began in his trial, a Harvey man on Wednesday admitted his role in an synthetic drug manufacturing ring that authorities have linked to the death of a teenager. Cang Nguyen, 33, abruptly ended the trial by pleading guilty to 17 charges in a racketeering enterprise that included manufacturing and selling synthetic marijuana from Jefferson Parish, extortion and even kidnapping, court records show.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand speaks during a March 2012 news conference in Harvey about drugs, cash and guns seized during raids targeting synthetic marijuana and bath salts. Cang Nguyen, 33, of Harvey, one of numerous people arrested during the sweeping investigations that unfoled during the past two years, pleaded guilty Wednesday (May 2, 2014), to 17 charges stemming from his involvement in a racketeering enterprise hinged on synthetic marijuana manufacture and sales. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. (Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune).
Judge Ross LaDart of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
Nguyen and 12 others were charged with using raw materials illegally shipped from China to manufacture the synthetic drugs. They were arrested as part of a sweeping investigation into the sale of the fake drugs, an inquiry that led Sheriff Newell Normand, in a news conference two years ago, to give business owners an ultimatum: “If a convenience store decides to sell this crap, we’re gonna shut ’em down.”
The racket has been linked to the March 2012 death of Chase Burnett, 16, of Fayetteville, Ga., who drowned in his parents’ hot tub after he smoked “Mojo Diamond EXTREME,” a synthetic marijuana manufactured in Jefferson Parish, prosecutors said last year. Burnett bought the substance at a convenience store in Peachtree, Ga.
That substance was distributed by Harold Bourgeois, 28, of Marrero, who authorities say was Nguyen’s partner in several businesses. Authorities say they obtained ingredients from China by using fake shipping invoices that identified the products as carpet cleaner and other items, prosecutors have said. With cash from their illegal activities, Nguyen and others involved in the enterprise bought Lamborghinis, Mercedes-Benzes and Lexuses, authorities said.
Nguyen and Bourgeois also were charged with aggravated kidnapping of a business partner who lived in Slidell. That man told federal authorities that he was lured to a warehouse in Belle Chasse, where he was beaten, shocked with a Taser gun and restrained, prosecutors said in court documents.
Read the full story by Paul Purpura from The Times-Picayune.
