A Garden Grove, California man will spend more than 18 years in federal prison after authorities say he turned canned goods into a drug pipeline, moving heavy loads of methamphetamine and fentanyl from the mainland to Hawaii.
Federal prosecutors in Honolulu said the case grew out of a long-running undercover operation that targeted parcels shipped from California to the islands, part of a broader push to choke off supply lines feeding Hawaii’s drug market.
United States Attorney Ken Sorenson’s office identified the defendant as Bill Van Nguyen, also known as “Sau,” 57, of Garden Grove. Senior United States District Judge Helen Gillmor sentenced Nguyen on June 22 to 220 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered him to forfeit $118,050 in drug proceeds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii. The office said Nguyen was convicted of distributing, attempting to distribute, and conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl.
The prosecution was brought under the Homeland Security Task Force model, an interagency framework created by Executive Order 14159 that pulls together federal firepower against cartels and transnational trafficking networks, as laid out in Executive Order 14159. HSTF teams combine agents from HSI, FBI, DEA, ATF and other federal partners with local law enforcement, all focused on supply chains moving fentanyl and meth into U.S. communities.
How prosecutors say the scheme worked
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, between April 2023 and April 2025 Nguyen sold and shipped roughly 34.5 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 11.5 pounds of fentanyl and fentanyl-laced pills to an undercover buyer in Hawaii. Prosecutors say he hid the drugs in parcels disguised as canned hominy and condensed milk, using ordinary pantry items as cover for some very non-grocery contents.
Nguyen allegedly told the undercover buyer he had a supplier in Mexico and directed a co-conspirator, Dylan Dang, to pick up cash payments for the deals. Authorities said Dang has pleaded guilty and is scheduled for sentencing in July. “Bill Van Nguyen made the choice to traffic massive amounts of crystal methamphetamine and fentanyl into Hawaii,” U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said, and the FBI’s Honolulu special agent in charge said the stiff sentence reflects sustained collaboration across agencies, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors and partners
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca A. Perlmutter handled the prosecution, the office said. The FBI led the investigation, with help from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Honolulu Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Prosecutors framed Nguyen’s sentence as one piece of a broader HSTF effort to disrupt the drug pipelines that move fentanyl and meth into Hawaii.
Federal officials said the lengthy prison term is meant to send a message to would-be traffickers who see island markets as lucrative and remote. Cutting off the suppliers who ship multi-pound loads into Hawaii, they argued, is central to reducing overdose deaths and violent crime that track alongside the drug trade.
