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ABALONE RING SENSED STING
Published on May 31, 1997
© 1997- The
Press Democrat
BYLINE: Bony
Saludes
Staff Writer
PAGE: B1
Key figures in a big abalone poaching operation
eagerly bought North Coast mollusk delicacies even though they
sensed undercover fish and game wardens were working a sting
on them, according to court documents.
The suspects, arrested in a series of raids Thursday in
Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties, kept asking an
undercover game warden if he was a warden and if he was
pulling a sting on them.
When the warden insisted he wasn't, one of them said he was
wondering about it because he once had assisted fish and game
wardens in a sting aimed at breaking up a lobster poaching
operation, the court documents reveal.
But the suspects bought large amounts of abalone
and kept asking for more -- up to 500 pounds a shipment --
until officials decided it was time to move in on them.
Two brothers, Jason Diep, 30, and Loi Bao Diep, 29, of
Rosemead, were arrested in the Los Angeles area after they
bought 300 abalone for $6,000 from an undercover
warden.
It was the sixth sale the warden, identified as Richard
Vincent in court documents, made to the Diep brothers in the
past two months.
During the raids, wardens seized 1.25 tons of
abalone meat -- the largest single haul ever -- valued
at $234,000.
Also arrested on Thursday was 29-year-old Chris N.
Doan, a Cupertino barber, who acted as a middle man for the
Diep brothers, officials said.
Documents disclosed wardens got some information about
the illicit Diep operation while investigating a Sonoma County
abalone poaching operation which was described as the
largest in the state's history.
In that case, 12 suspects, mostly scuba divers, were
arrested in 1994 for illegally taking and selling 20 tons of
abalone, valued at $1 million, to a San Diego
fisherman, who sold the mollusks to East Coast and Asian
markets.
Vincent said a Sonoma County warden reported last year
he was told by a confidential informant involved in the 1994
case that he knew a man named ``Jason'' who was involved in
the sales and distribution of abalone poached in the
North Coast.
In September, game wardens got a tip that a man,
identified as Chris Doan, had shipped 428 pounds of
abalone from San Jose to Loi Diep in Burbank.
Through surveillance and other tips, wardens began a
sting operation by getting Vincent to pose as a sports diver
willing to sell his abalone and those of fellow divers
to the Dieps.
After some bickering over the phone over a period of
time, the Dieps, who allegedly were buying both legal and
poached abalone at Half Moon Bay, agreed to buy North
Coast abalone from Vincent, the documents state.
Vincent said he was put in contact with Doan, the
middle man, who asked ``If I could produce four or five
hundred pounds of abalone a week.''
Vincent sold various amounts of abalone either
directly to the Dieps or through Doan four times in April and
once earlier this month.
The sales were the basis for a felony conspiracy
complaint filed against the three suspects by the Sonoma
County District Attorney's Office, a charge that can send them
to state prison for three years if convicted.
Doan, arrested in Cupertino, was booked at the Sonoma
County Jail on Thursday. He is scheduled to appear in court on
Monday. The Dieps had not been transferred to Sonoma County as
of Friday.
``The Department has placed a renewed emphasis upon
protecting the coast and redirected enforcement resources to
address these issues,'' state fish and game director Jacquelin
Schafer said. ``I am proud and pleased with our wardens'
performance in this case.''
In an effort to increase the focus on California's
coastal resources, Schafer announced the creation of a new
Marine Resources Region to be headquartered in the central
coast.
Infobox: This article also appeared on The Press
Democrat Home page (http://www.pressdemo.com).
Keywords: FISHING CRIME
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