Sugar Land drug dealer gets 75 years

SUGAR LAND, TX — A Sugar Land drug dealer recently got a combined 75 year sentence for running his own little street pharmacy out of his house.

Lam Kim Nguyen, 28, pleaded guilty in Fort Bend County’s 268th District Court to a veritable smorgasbord of felonies — including 15 counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, three counts of delivery of a controlled substance, two counts of unlawfully possessing body armor and money laundering, according to a statement from the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s office.

In June 2015, the Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force received a good tip that Nguyen was selling drugs out of his house. Nguyen’s place happened to be within 1,000 feet of a park, which meant that he was dealing in a drug-free zone.

Local law enforcement began watching Nguyen’s place and investigating his finances. Based on what they found, the narcotics task force was able to get a search warrant for Nguyen’s house.

The cops called in the East Fort Bend Regional SWAT Team when they raided Nguyen’s place. When they entered the house, the task force officers found Nguyen in the master bedroom, with a handgun on the nightstand, according to court records.

In 2006, Nguyen was convicted of robbery and given an eight year prison sentence. He was paroled in 2010 and released from parole in November 2014. Because he's a recently convicted felon, Nguyen can't own guns or body armor.

A search of the property turned up more than 36 grams of synthetic marijuana, more than 20 pounds of real marijuana, about a pound of Xanax pills and 11 ounces of cocaine.

Officers also found 27 grams of ethylone, one of the ingredients in ‘bath salts,’ and more than 24 ounces of promethazine cough syrup— the active ingredient in the Houston hip-hop staple purple drank, a.k.a. lean — in Nguyen’s house.

Along with the cornucopia of drugs, the cops also found more than $28,000, a gas mask, two sets of body armor, 15 firearms—handguns, shotguns and rifles—and 5,000 rounds of ammunition in Nguyen’s closet, according to court records.

The amount of the various drugs found meant that the possession charges were all first-degree felonies, which are punishable with five to 99 years imprisonment, the weapons charges were all third-degree felonies, which can be punished with 5-10 years’ incarceration.

alex.wukman@patch.com

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