Federal law enforcement officials are detaining an Orange County convicted felon for once again possessing a weapon while selling cocaine and methamphetamine.
According to a grand jury indictment, police officers found Doc Huu Nguyen with more than three pounds of cocaine plus two-and-a-half pounds of methamphetamine as well as a 9mm Glock semi-automatic handgun and 16 rounds of ammunition.
Prosecutors inside the U.S. Department of Justice want Nguyen to remain in pre-trial custody, deeming him a serious flight risk because he faces a potential federal prison term of more than a decade; previously falsified his identity; and ignored prior parole conditions.
Orange County Superior Court records show local authorities have convicted Nguyen seven times since 2009 for drug trafficking, weapons possession and multiple commercial burglaries.
Inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, the case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter with a scheduled trial date due in coming weeks.
The 44-year-old defendant–who was arrested by a Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agent and is represented by a public defender–has not yet entered a plea.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.