A 43-year-old man from Orange County was sentenced to nearly 18 years in prison for his role as the leader of an international drug smuggling ring that trafficked hundreds of pounds of meth to countries in the South Pacific, federal officials announced Monday.
In a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecutors said Hoang Xuan Le, a resident of Tustin known as “Big Bro,” and a 40-year-old Tri Buinguyen Garden Grove known as “Bro,” arranged for the export of bulk quantities of methamphetamine by air cargo and ocean freight from the U.S. to members of a drug trafficking organization in Australia and Papua New Guinea between July 2020 and Oct. 2021.
The men would conceal the drugs in a variety of commercial products, including packets of instant noodles, mushroom and garlic seasoning and custom metal boxes while fabricating what was in the shipments on custom documents and manifests…