LOS ANGELES – A former FBI agent has been charged with planning to rob a drug money stash house in Orange County, according to court documents obtained Wednesday.
Vo Duong Tran was arrested by an FBI SWAT team outside a hotel in Fountain Valley late Monday after they traveled from New Orleans to carry out the robbery, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
Tran plotted to steal money from a Mexican drug courier and drug money from the stash house, according to the arrest affidavit.
Tran worked as a special agent out of the FBI's Chicago office, spokesman Ross Rice said. He did not say when or why Tran left the government agency.
He and Yu Sung Park, a suspected accomplice in the robbery plot, were arrested on suspicion of interference with commerce by means of threat or violence and conspiring to distribute narcotics.
Tran's conversations and meetings with an FBI informant were monitored for six months, according to the arrest affidavit. At one point, he told the informant that he was previously involved in illegal sports bookmaking activities and that he wanted to kill several people who owed him money.
According to the affidavit, Tran allegedly told the informant, "I want blood. I have to make sure it has to be done right because all my hits, they are clean. Not even come back to me."
It was not known late Wednesday if the Tran or Park had hired attorneys.
Eimiller said the men were due Thursday in federal court in Santa Ana for a detention hearing.
Tran, who is Vietnamese, filed a federal lawsuit against the FBI in 2002 after he'd been with the agency 11 years. He alleged racial discrimination and said he was the victim of retaliation after making complaints, according to a 2002 story in the Chicago Tribune.
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