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SALT LAKE CITY — Police have arrested another man in connection with a large-scale drug operation in Utah headed by a 19-year-old man who was selling THC products on Snapchat, according to charging documents.
Andrew Trieu Diep, 28, of Salt Lake City, was arrested earlier this week and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, money laundering, producing or manufacturing a controlled substance, possession of a weapon by a restricted person, drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.
His arrest comes about a month after Ntwydamala Christian Cook, 19, of Salt Lake City, was charged in 3rd District Court with being involved in a drug criminal enterprise, drug distribution, purchase or possession of a firearm by a restricted person, forgery, and production of a controlled substance.
Cook “acted as a manager or supervisor of at least five employees for the distribution of illegal controlled substances,” according to charging documents.
Cook would order drugs from a “contact in California,” give them to his employees to sell, and then pay the employees while collecting the proceeds from the drug sales, the charges state.
In addition to making drug sales in Utah using Snapchat, Cook also mailed drugs to people in Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the charges state. He was arrested following a 13-month multi-agency investigation.
A break in the case came when the lead investigator, a West Jordan police detective, got Cook to accept his friend request on Snapchat while working undercover.
“After Mr. Cook accepted me as a friend I could see his public posts where he constantly advertised his illegal sale of various drugs, including cocaine, acid, ecstasy, LSD, oxycodone, Xanax, massive amounts of THC products, fraudulent driver’s licenses, and firearms. During the investigation, I also noticed Mr. Cook would often post videos to Snapchat of his bank deposit slips in an attempt to show how much money he possessed,” the detective wrote in a police affidavit.
When a search warrant was served on Cook’s apartment on Sept. 9, investigators “recovered multiple firearms, multiple fraudulent driver’s licenses, large amounts of cash and various types of narcotics. The narcotics included a substance that tested positive for fentanyl, a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine, ecstasy, LSD and large amounts of THC products. These products included marijuana, THC vape cartridges and edibles,” the report states.
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A 19-year-old Salt Lake man that police say is a key player in a “large-scale drug operation” has been arrested following a yearlong investigation by West Jordan police and federal agents.Diep was identified as one of Cook’s employees, according to the report. The investigator found out that Diep had multiple post office boxes throughout the Salt Lake Valley.
“Postal authorities notified me multiple times of incoming packages addressed to Mr. Deip. I would then monitor Mr. Deip’s movements and compare this (to) Mr. Cook’s movements and Mr. Cook’s Snapchat posts,” he wrote in the report.
“Postal inspectors intercepted multiple packages on multiple occasions addressed to Mr. Diep. During the service of search warrants, investigators found the boxes usually contained THC vape cartridges or THC edibles. During one search warrant, postal inspectors estimate they intercepted approximately $120,000 of THC vape cartridges,” the report states.
Postal inspectors estimated that 100 packages were sent to Diep.
Police also believe Diep was receiving large payments, noting that while Diep only held a part-time job, he leased a “high-end” apartment with Cook and owned a 2013 Toyota Tacoma and a Harley Davidson motorcycle, the report states.
After his arrest, police searched Diep’s apartment and found “a semi-automatic handgun and large amounts of ammunition. They also located $1,840 dollars in $20 bills, marijuana (positive field test) and THC ‘dabs,’” according to the report.
