Pubdate: Sat, 21 Mar 2009
Source: Greensboro News & Record (NC)
Copyright: 2009 Greensboro News & Record, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.news-record.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/173
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

BLOODY MASS MURDER STEMS FROM DRUG TRADE

A mass murder in a small North Carolina town turned into a modern 
morality play as facts emerged this week.

Authorities have determined that drug trafficking was behind the 
slaughter of four members of a Conover family March 12.

The tragedy shows that delving into a dirty, illegal business can 
have unintended, deadly consequences.

While Brian Tzeo has not been charged with any crime, the Catawba 
County Sheriff's Office says he admitted his role in a drug-smuggling 
ring, receiving opium mailed from Thailand. Tzeo wasn't home when 
authorities say an associate, Chiew Chan Saevang, went to his house 
to steal opium and killed Tzeo's wife and three children.

Events took another bizarre turn Wednesday. Saevang and his 
girlfriend, Yer Yang, also an alleged member of the drug ring, 
crashed their car in Utah during a pursuit and died by 
murder-suicide, the Washington County, Utah, Sheriff's Office said.

Theirs were the fifth and sixth deaths in this horrific affair. 
Neighbors of the Tzeo family and members of the area's Southeast 
Asian immigrant communities expressed shock, both at the crime itself 
and at the alleged drug connection. Tzeo and his wife came to the 
United States from Laos in the 1980s.

"I just don't understand," said Tong Yang, a leader in Catawba 
County's Hmong community. "Why would someone do something that would 
jeopardize his family?" "I regret everything," Tzeo told the 
Associated Press on Thursday. "It's something I never should have 
gotten involved in. It's hard to live with this." The regret is too 
late. Maybe Tzeo saw an opportunity to make a lot of money but never 
thought about the risks to his family.

Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman said opium or heroin, which is 
made from opium, worth $160,000 to $200,000 was stolen from the Tzeo 
house. Some people are willing to kill for that much money -- willing 
to kill even a 4-year-old boy, who was the youngest victim of this 
crime. Neighbors would not have been safe, either, if any had been 
unlucky enough to witness the attack.

It provides good reason for neighbors to report suspected drug 
activity to authorities before something like this happens.

And it offers a painful moral: Getting mixed up in a dirty business 
can claim a swift and terrible price.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom