Cocaine

A Canadian man is scheduled to be arraigned next month on charges of planning to sell more than 200 pounds of cocaine, which police discovered inside his mobile home parked in Newport Beach. Jean-Francois Gosselin, 34, of Mascouche, Quebec, Canada, is charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and a sentencing enhancement for having more than 80 kilos, when he was arrested Jan. 20 at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort. According to Newport Beach police, officers from the Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program served a search warrant on Gosselin’s class A motor home with Quebec license plates at about 5:30 p.m. that day. Officers found 92 individually packed kilos of cocaine throughout the vehicle, said Newport Beach police Sgt. Evan Sailor.

COSTA MESA — A city maintenance worker who committed suicide at City Hall on the day he was to receive a layoff notice had cocaine in his system when he died, according to the county coroner's toxicology report. Huy Pham, 29, jumped to his death from City Hall's roof about 3:23 p.m. March 17. Pham had not yet received his notice and was on medical leave for weeks because of an injury he suffered while training to climb the Himalayas later this year with friends. Pham had .44 milligrams of cocaine per liter of blood in his system, according to the report.

Two Newport Beach men were part of a drug trade involving nearly 20 people that included trading large amounts of methamphetamines and Ecstasy for cocaine headed for Canada, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Within several indictments unsealed Tuesday, a grand jury determined that Nathanael Lineham, 39, and Alexandru Sabau of Newport Beach helped at least 18 people trade drugs worth millions of dollars with men in Canada. Seven men, including Lineham, were arrested Tuesday and brought a two-year federal investigation dubbed “Operation Candystore” to a close.

A San Jose man accused of trying to carry more than 4 pounds of cocaine onto a flight from John Wayne Airport pleaded not guilty to felony drug charges Tuesday. Paul Francis Smith, 22, was arrested Monday morning at the airport after security screening, said Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino. A Transportation Security Administration screener noticed Smith’s baggy pants, Amormino said. When authorities patted Smith down, they found two packages of cocaine in his pants pockets, he said.

A Newport Beach man’s trial for allegedly trying to exchange $2 million worth of Ecstasy pills for cocaine is tentatively scheduled for September, prosecutors said Monday. Alexandru Sabau, 37, is accused of trying to trade 100,000 Ecstasy pills for 25 kilos of cocaine he planned to take to Canada with undercover federal agents. He pleaded not guilty in federal court Monday. Sabau, a Canadian citizen of Romanian descent, was arrested June 27 after a three-month-long investigation with local and federal authorities culminated in a staged $2 million deal with federal agents.

A Canadian man is scheduled to be arraigned next month on charges of planning to sell more than 200 pounds of cocaine, which police discovered inside his mobile home parked in Newport Beach. Jean-Francois Gosselin, 34, of Mascouche, Quebec, is charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and a sentencing enhancement for having more than 80 kilos when he was arrested Jan. 20 at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort. According to Newport Beach police, officers from the Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program served a search warrant on Gosselin’s Class A motor home with Quebec license plates about 5:30 p.m. that day. Officers found 92 individually packed kilos of cocaine in the vehicle, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Evan Sailor.

A Canadian man recently arrested on suspicion of possessing hundreds of pounds of cocaine with intent to distribute will be taken into custody by immigration officials before he’s ever set free, authorities said. Jean Francois Gosselin, 34, of Mascouche, Quebec, is being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $5-million bail after police said they arrested him Jan. 20 in Newport Beach with 92 kilos of cocaine. Even if he were to post bail, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement would take him into custody for possible deportation, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

A Canadian man was arrested at a Costa Mesa storage facility, where he was allegedly found waiting for 80 pounds of cocaine, federal authorities said Friday. John Philip Co, 41, of Richmond, British Columbia, was arrested late Wednesday as part a federal investigation into a Southern California operation that allegedly laundered millions of dollars for a Canada-based narcotics trafficking organization, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). June Jie Zhang, 31, of Toronto was also arrested at a casino in Commerce as a part of the investigation.

UC Irvine researchers have discovered that a drug they say could treat cancer may also keep recovering cocaine addicts from relapsing into their habit, university officials said in a news release. The drug, sodium butyrate, slows or blocks drug-seeking activity in mice who sought cocaine in earlier experiments, UCI neuroscientists found. Unlike typical drug-treatment programs that look to un-condition cues people associate with drug use, scientists took the novel approach of using sodium butyrate to address addictive behavior on a molecular level, school officials said.

A Canadian man was arrested at a Costa Mesa storage facility, where he was allegedly found waiting for 80 pounds of cocaine, federal authorities said Friday. John Philip Co, 41, of Richmond, British Columbia, was arrested late Wednesday as part a federal investigation into a Southern California operation that allegedly laundered millions of dollars for a Canada-based narcotics trafficking organization, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). June Jie Zhang, 31, of Toronto was also arrested at a casino in Commerce as a part of the investigation.

COSTA MESA — A city maintenance worker who committed suicide at City Hall on the day he was to receive a layoff notice had cocaine in his system when he died, according to the county coroner's toxicology report. Huy Pham, 29, jumped to his death from City Hall's roof about 3:23 p.m. March 17. Pham had not yet received his notice and was on medical leave for weeks because of an injury he suffered while training to climb the Himalayas later this year with friends. Pham had .44 milligrams of cocaine per liter of blood in his system, according to the report.

A Canadian man was sentenced to 13 years in prison Friday for possessing more than 200 pounds of cocaine in a Newport Beach mobile home park in 2010. Jean Francois Gosselin, 35, pleaded guilty at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana to possession of more than 10 kilograms of a controlled substance with intent to sell. Newport Beach and Orange County Sheriff's Department investigators arrested Gosselin at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort on Jan. 20 with 92 kilos of cocaine, or just more than 200 pounds.

Stephen David Royds, a convicted drug dealer who kept his girlfriend's body preserved on dry ice in a swank Newport Beach hotel room for a year, has returned to his native New Zealand after being released from prison, federal officials said Thursday. Royds, 49, was paroled in May after serving more than a year and a half of a four-year sentence for felony drug charges. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him June 25, ICE officials said. Royds, who went by the nickname "Kiwi," was arrested in March 2008 by Newport Beach police officers.

A Canadian man recently arrested on suspicion of possessing hundreds of pounds of cocaine with intent to distribute will be taken into custody by immigration officials before he’s ever set free, authorities said. Jean Francois Gosselin, 34, of Mascouche, Quebec, is being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $5-million bail after police said they arrested him Jan. 20 in Newport Beach with 92 kilos of cocaine. Even if he were to post bail, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement would take him into custody for possible deportation, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

A Canadian man is scheduled to be arraigned next month on charges of planning to sell more than 200 pounds of cocaine, which police discovered inside his mobile home parked in Newport Beach. Jean-Francois Gosselin, 34, of Mascouche, Quebec, is charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and a sentencing enhancement for having more than 80 kilos when he was arrested Jan. 20 at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort. According to Newport Beach police, officers from the Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program served a search warrant on Gosselin’s Class A motor home with Quebec license plates about 5:30 p.m. that day. Officers found 92 individually packed kilos of cocaine in the vehicle, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Evan Sailor.

A Canadian man is scheduled to be arraigned next month on charges of planning to sell more than 200 pounds of cocaine, which police discovered inside his mobile home parked in Newport Beach. Jean-Francois Gosselin, 34, of Mascouche, Quebec, Canada, is charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and a sentencing enhancement for having more than 80 kilos, when he was arrested Jan. 20 at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort. According to Newport Beach police, officers from the Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program served a search warrant on Gosselin’s class A motor home with Quebec license plates at about 5:30 p.m. that day. Officers found 92 individually packed kilos of cocaine throughout the vehicle, said Newport Beach police Sgt. Evan Sailor.

A Newport Beach drug dealer has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for trying to trade 100,000 pills of Ecstasy for cocaine, authorities said Tuesday. Alexandru Sabau, 39, will also have three years of supervised release after he gets out, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one of the agencies involved in Sabau’s case. Sabau was arrested June 27, 2008, after he tried to trade 100,000 Ecstasy pills, worth about $2 million, to an undercover ICE agent outside a Newport Beach coffee shop.

UC Irvine researchers have discovered that a drug they say could treat cancer may also keep recovering cocaine addicts from relapsing into their habit, university officials said in a news release. The drug, sodium butyrate, slows or blocks drug-seeking activity in mice who sought cocaine in earlier experiments, UCI neuroscientists found. Unlike typical drug-treatment programs that look to un-condition cues people associate with drug use, scientists took the novel approach of using sodium butyrate to address addictive behavior on a molecular level, school officials said.