Major sting drug buy nets two

Delivery, possession charges: $5M bond for Skokie man

By Art Peterson

STAFF WRITER

03/26/04

Bond was set at $5 million Thursday in Lake County Circuit Court for a Skokie man arrested in Deerfield after a major sting buy of Ecstasy pills by the Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group, along with the Deerfield Police Department and other law enforcement agencies. Hien Van La, 29, was charged with three counts of unlawful delivery, a Class X offense, and three counts of unlawful possession, a Class One offense. Associate Judge Victoria Martin set bond at $500,000, for another man, Virasack Z. Phoxay, a 26-year-old Chicago resident, who law enforcement officials indicate was an alleged lookout. Phoxay is charged with one count each of delivery and possession. Additional charges of trafficking are likely, indicated Daniel Shanes, chief of the drug prosecutions division of the Lake County State's Attorney's office, if evidence proves that the pills were brought in from out-of-state. Van La was arrested at 5:35 p.m. Wednesday, in the parking lot of the Cadwell Corners strip mall, at 57 N. Waukegan Road, Deerfield. He allegedly delivered 5,000 Ecstasy pills to an undercover Lake County MEG agent. In two prior sales in the Highland Park area, Van La allegedly had sold the agent 400 pills, according to MEG spokesmen. The agent paid a total of $40,000 for the three transactions. Each pill has a street value of $35, according to MEG spokesmen, and the triple buy has a street value of $189,000. The arrests capped a two-month-long investigation which also involved the Illinois State Police, the FBI, the DuPage County Metropolitan Enforcement Group and the Riverwoods Police Department. The investigation was part of the State Police "Project X" initiative, a law enforcement program that targets drug dealers selling "club drugs" such as Ecstasy. While Van La was making the actual drug deal, Shanes said Phoxay was driving around the strip mall parking lot as the two men stayed in communication with each other via cell phones. Phoxay has no prior convictions, but he has had prior arrests in Chicago and Cook County, Shanes said, and has forfeited bond and required bench warrants. Phoxay is a foreign-born U.S. citizen, Shanes added. The total amount of the pills qualifies as a Class Super X offense, Shanes indicated. A conviction would bring a sentence of 15 to 60 years in prison. If evidence proves an out-of-state source for the pills, a trafficking charge could double the sentence to 30 to 120 years in prison, Shanes added. Although Van La said he is unemployed, Shanes said he has funds, including state money from drug stings which was traced to his bank account. Van La, who was born in North Vietnam, has had prior arrests for drug offenses but no convictions, Shanes said. "He is not now charged with trafficking," Shanes said, but evidence indicates "he got pills from other states. He is a flight risk and needs a bond of several million dollars." Martin set bond at $5 million "based on the hand-to-hand contact" of Van La in the alleged drug deal. She set a hearing for status of attorney on April 2. Shanes recommended a $2 million bond for Phoxay. Attorney Richard Quinn recommended a lower amount, saying Phoxay has a 5-year-old son, no gang affiliation, and "has no reason to flee. His car was searched and they found nothing." Martin said "the defendant's position is that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The evidence may prove otherwise. The request is high, I'll set a reasonable bond." Quinn said Phoxay's family could raise up to $20,000, but not immediately. Martin set bond at least temporarily at $500,000, and scheduled a hearing for further bond review for Phoxay on Tuesday. Both men, if they post bond, must follow a 24-hour curfew, with release from home only for work, school or to see an attorney, and they can have no contact with each other, Martin said. Until and if bond is posted, the two will be kept in separate portions of the Lake County Jail in Waukegan.