A Mexican Army expert shows crystal meth paste at a clandestine laboratory near la Rumorosa town in Tecate, Baja California state, Mexico on August 28, 2018. - According to the Army, the lab can produce up to 200 kilograms of the crystal meth daily. On the same operation the Army destroyed two marihuana plantations with a total surface area of 19,000 square meters. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP) (Photo credit should read GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images)
Los Angeles, California – A Tustin man who led a transnational drug trafficking organization that exported hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine to Australia and Papua New Guinea was sentenced this week to 17.5 years in federal prison, authorities announced.
Hoang Xuan Le, 43, also known as “Big Bro,” was sentenced by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner to 210 months in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. Le pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one count of conspiracy to export controlled substances.
From July 2020 to October 2021, Le and his co-defendant, Tri Buinguyen, 40, of Garden Grove — who went by “Bro” — orchestrated the export of bulk meth shipments using air cargo and ocean freight. Prosecutors say the operation used encrypted messaging apps like Signal, fake identities, front businesses, and falsified customs documentation to disguise narcotics as commercial goods, such as metal boxes and food storage buckets.
According to court records, Le personally oversaw at least two shipments: 66 pounds of meth hidden in metal boxes shipped to Australia in August 2020, and 330.7 pounds of meth packed into food containers sent to Papua New Guinea between April and September 2021. Both shipments were intercepted by international law enforcement.
“On top of the sophistication and reach of this drug trafficking organization, Le played a critical leadership role in it,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “This was a wide-ranging, lucrative, and sophisticated international narcotics conspiracy, and Le was its leader in the United States.”
Buinguyen pleaded guilty to the same charge in November 2024 and was sentenced on February 24 to 15 years in prison and fined $50,000. In addition to the 2020 and 2021 shipments, he admitted to sending 32 kilograms of meth in meal packets to New Zealand in 2022, which were also seized by law enforcement.
Two other co-defendants — Trung Buinguyen, 41, of Lakewood, and Narongsak Champy, 29, of Long Beach — remain fugitives. Both are charged with conspiracy to export and distribute controlled substances.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with assistance from multiple U.S. and international agencies, including the DEA, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and law enforcement bodies in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand.
The prosecution was part of Operation Take Back America, an initiative under the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program targeting major criminal networks.
