Elmwood Village Properties Forfeited in International Narcotics Prosecution

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that a federal judge has ordered the forfeiture of two parcels of real property in Buffalo’s Elmwood Village which were purchased with drug proceeds from an international drug organization. The properties, a commercial building located at 427 Elmwood Avenue, and a single-family residence at 262 Bryant Street, were forfeited as part of a five-year Boston, Massachusetts-based Organized Crime Drug Task Force investigation and prosecution. Buffalo-based DEA and ICE agents and forfeiture specialists in the Buffalo U.S. Attorney’s Office assisted in the investigation and prosecution.

Four members of a Boston family with ties to the Buffalo area, including sons (Quoc Bao Trinh and Tai Trinh), their father (Tiem Trinh) and their mother (Anna Trinh), were convicted and sentenced in federal court in Boston to serve a combined total of approximately sixty years in prison for crimes including conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute over 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute MDMA, also known as ecstasy, money laundering conspiracy, being a felon in possession of firearms, and perjury. Pursuant to a combination of guilty pleas and trial convictions, Federal Judge William G. Young also ordered the forfeiture of assets belonging to the family, including the Elmwood Village properties, about $22,000 cash, three Mercedes Benz vehicles, a Cadillac Escalade, a custom-made platinum and diamond necklace, a Rolex watch, and two firearms. Forfeiture proceedings are still pending with respect to the Trinhs’ Boston residence.

“This very successful joint investigation into drug trafficking resulted in very significant sentences against these four members of the Trinh family and others who conspired with them. We are very pleased with the outcome,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul and Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. “This case sends the strong message that drug trafficking, and particularly drug trafficking on this grand scale, will not be tolerated, and that those who engage in it risk destroying their families, losing their freedom, and losing the money and property they gained through their crimes.”

Both Elmwood Village properties were purchased in the names of defendant Anna Trinh and one of her daughters, who was not charged, in January 2005 and paid for, in full, with nearly $500,000.00 of the organization’s drug proceeds. Quoc Bao Trinh and his co-conspirators imported large amounts of marijuana and ecstasy into and through Western New York using the Canadian border crossings. The Trinhs had been using the 262 Bryant property for approximately a year in efforts to grow marijuana to supply their operation when the Trinhs and their co-defendants were arrested, and the property was searched by Buffalo and Boston-based agents, in early February 2007. The commercial building at 427 Elmwood Avenue, includes the `Wine Thief’ Wine Bar and several other small businesses and apartments. U.S. Attorney Hochul stressed that until the February 2007 search, the tenants of the Elmwood Avenue property did not know their landlord was a major drug trafficker and that the tenants had nothing to do with the Trinhs’ criminal activities.

The investigation was conducted jointly by the Buffalo and Boston regional offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation; and the Special Investigations Unit of the Boston Police Department, assisted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard L. Hoffman and Timothy E. Moran of the Organized Crime Strike Force Unit of the United Attorney’s Office in Boston. The forfeiture of the Elmwood Village properties is being jointly handled by both Hochul’s and Ortiz’s offices. Hochul emphasized that both properties will be sold through the United Marshals Service and all proceeds will be used to further law enforcement efforts to continue to protect our community’s citizens.