Burlington resident arrested in Winooski, faces deportation

By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First

An immigrant from Vietnam that became a serial offender while in Vermont trafficking in guns, cocaine and marijuana has been arrested in Winooski by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement so he can be deported as an undesirable, according to authorities.

Hieu Van Tran, 33, of Burlington has a long criminal history in Vermont that involves 14 court convictions, including for federal cocaine trafficking, domestic assault, driving while under the influence, disorderly conduct and various violations of state probation and federal supervision, according to ICE and federal court records.

Police also know Tran for frequently trading guns and drugs and for him getting shot during a confrontation with another felon at 48 Isham Street in Burlington earlier this spring, records show.

Tran continued to deal drugs and commit crimes knowing that a criminal conviction would likely result in him being deported, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher said during a federal sentencing in October 2019.    

A federal judge sentenced Tran, who also is known as “Chino” and “Wavy,” to two years in prison for trafficking cocaine, records show.  Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford noted the pre-sentence report indicated Tran had 12 guns.

After his prison time, Tran was on federal supervised release for three years, but he violated those terms when South Burlington Police Sgt. Sean Pope arrested him on five new charges, including resisting arrest, eluding police, negligent operation and leaving the scene of an accident in November 2023.

Burlington Police also arrested him for attempted burglary and unlawful mischief, Cpl. Eugene Baccaglini reported.

The long-expected deportation of Tran never happened while President Joe Biden was in office (January 2021 to January 2025).

Tran’s arrest by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) office in Boston was disclosed on social media on Friday, but appears to have happened a week or so earlier.

The special ERO team focuses on the identification, arrest, detention, and removal of persons that violate immigration laws or are illegally present in the United States.

President Donald Trump when he took office Jan. 20 said ICE would focus on removing “The Worst of the Worst” that did not belong in the country and were making it unsafe for citizens.

Tran’s record is a “laundry list of destruction” between August 2013 and March 2024, according to U.S. Law Enforcement, a Facebook page of current and retired officers.

“This isn’t a one-time mistake. This is 11 years of chaos — while our system looked the other way,” the page noted. 

Also Tran was found with 10 pounds of marijuana and $1,300 in cash on him when arrested on the federal cocaine trafficking charge in Burlington in December 2018. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a motion in federal court on Friday afternoon that asks that before Tran is deported he be returned from ICE detention to Vermont long enough to allow lawyers to take his deposition for a new federal gun case stemming from the April shooting that injured Tran.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Fuller wrote Tran is at a New Hampshire jail “awaiting imminent removal to Vietnam.”  She noted, “Once Tran is removed to Vietnam, it will be impracticable to secure his attendance by subpoena.”

New shooting arrest

Nazareth Gonzalez, 23, of Winooski, the suspect in the Tran shooting on April 28, was named Friday in the new criminal complaint in federal court charging him with illegal possession of a firearm as a multi-time convicted felon, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The complaint says Gonzalez wounded Tran in the leg during the Isham Street shooting about 4:45 p.m.   Burlington Police arrested Gonzalez the next day on state charges of attempted second degree murder, reckless endangerment and being a person prohibited from possessing a firearm, the ATF said.

His girlfriend, Taylor Vuley, 27, of Colchester was later charged with being an accessory after the shooting and false information to police in the case, the ATF said.

ATF Special Agent Sam Brown noted the handgun used in the shooting was the same firearm possessed by Noor Mohamed, 25, of Burlington during a confrontation as the bars were closing on Church Street about 2 AM June 21.

Mohamed caused a disturbance and got into a scuffle with Burlington Police officers when he ignored their orders and physically resisted, officials said. Instead of complying with the officers, Mohamed reached into his waistband to grab his loaded firearm, resulting in an intense and perilous physical struggle between Mohamed and law enforcement over the gun, Burlington Police said.

As law enforcement struggled to detain Mohamed and gain control of the loaded firearm, a large, confrontational, agitated crowd formed around officers, creating an increasingly unsafe and precarious scene, police said.

Eventually, officers were able to handcuff the defendant and gain possession of the firearm, which was a Glock-style handgun with a defaced serial number, police said. It was loaded with 13 rounds of ammunition, including one in the chamber, police said.

Burlington Police also determined Mohamed was in the car on Isham Street in April when Tran was shot.

A witness reported that Mohamed stated he provided his gun to Gonzalez because he thought Tran was going to kill Gonzalez, the ATF said. 

About 3 ½ hours before the Isham Street shooting, Gonzalez sent Vuley a video of them having sexual intercourse and Gonzalez is pictured picking up a handgun with a laser/light combination device mounted underneath the barrel to illuminate the event, court records note.  The unusual gun matched the description of the firearm used in the shooting, record state.   

Tran sentenced for cocaine

During the cocaine case in Burlington, Drescher, the prosecutor, had asked that Tran be sentenced to two years in federal prison due to the serious nature of the case. He said Tran was an associate of at least one other person charged in a larger cocaine distribution conspiracy case.

Drescher noted that even after that larger drug conspiracy was taken down, law enforcement recorded Tran still trying to convey cocaine and a firearm.  Tran was on state probation when he got busted, Drescher wrote. 

“Given the nature of his criminal conduct, given his history and characteristics, given his demonstrated history of committing crimes while on supervision, we think an additional period of incarceration would not only protect the public, but it would also send the right message to Mr. Tran to promote respect for the law,” Drescher said.

Drescher said the nearly one year in pre-trial detention was not enough for Tran.

“So far his criminal conduct displays a disregard for his family and a disregard for his community.  He needs an additional 12 months for the appropriate message to get across.  We recommend a 24-month sentence,” Drescher told Judge Crawford.

Tran and his defense lawyer Richard Bothfeld both asked for time served, which had been about 10 months.  Tran said he wanted to get back to his family, which included three children from three different women, court records noted. His mother also was local.

The federal sentencing guidelines, which are advisory, had suggested somewhere between 18 and 24 months.  Crawford went with the high end due to the serious nature of the case.

A Winooski detective, assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force in 2018 wrote in detail in an affidavit about Tran and his efforts to deal drugs and guns in the Burlington area.

Records for the Vermont Department of Corrections show Tran has been lodged several times at state prisons through the years and most recently ended a four-months stay at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans on March 28, 2024.  It appears that time reflected his detention for violating his federal supervised release conditions.

That same month Crawford imposed an 8 month sentence for violating his supervised release conditions.  Tran would have been shipped to a federal facility to serve the remainder of the sentence.

Tran admitted to attempted unlawful trespass into a residence, negligent operation and driving after suspension, records show. The supervised release violations for the other crimes in South Burlington and Burlington were not pursued, records show.

The ICE pickup

Winooski Police said this week they were not involved in the ICE arrest nor did they know where Tran may have been taken. 

The state of Vermont has adopted a policy that discourages local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE on civil apprehensions. The state policy allows ICE to work secretly. The state also does not have ICE report to local law enforcement when illegal or dangerous immigrants have been picked up in their community for deportation or where the wanted persons are taken.

During the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term, ICE reported it had arrested 66,463 illegal aliens and removed 65,682 aliens.

They included criminals who threatened public safety and national security, ICE said.  Three in four arrests were classified as criminal illegal aliens.

ICE acting Director Todd M. Lyons said those arrests included 2,288 gang members from Tren de Aragua, MS-13, the 18th Street and other gangs. Additionally, 1,329 were accused or convicted of sex offenses, and 498 were accused or convicted of murder, ICE said.

The criminal records of those arrested include convictions or charges for 9,639 assaults, 6,398 DWIs or DUIs and 1,479 weapon offenses.