Six people were charged in Los Angeles County on 1 August 2025 over the deaths of five workers at illegal cannabis extraction labs in Irwindale and South El Monte.[1] Ted Chien, 53, of Temple City, the alleged owner of the operation, faces five counts of murder with the special circumstance of multiple murders.[2] Chien also faces two felony counts of arson causing great bodily injury, eight counts of manufacturing a controlled substance and three counts of maintaining a place for selling or using a controlled substance.[1] His partner Han Quan Jiao, 55, of Rosemead, is charged with one count of murder over Sikarin’s death, plus arson, three maintaining-a-place counts and eight manufacturing counts.[1] Four employees, Xiaolong Deng, 36, Chengyan Xu, 61, Christopher Reyes, 30, and Frank Herrera, 35, are each charged with conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance, and with manufacturing or producing a controlled substance.[2] If convicted as charged, Chien could face life in prison without parole or death, Jiao up to life, and the four employees up to seven years, or eight years and eight months for Xu, the district attorney’s office said.[1] Prosecutors are still to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Chien.[2]
An explosion and fire at the warehouse on 9 October 2023 killed Yi Luo, 47, of Baldwin Park; Xin Chen, 59, of Rosemead; Guangqi Fu, 35, of Chino; and Quizhuo Liang, 35, of Monterey Park.[1] All four worked at the warehouse, which prosecutors say Chien and Jiao used for honey oil extraction, a butane process that concentrates cannabis.[1] Firefighters found two of the victims’ bodies and a large butane honey oil lab inside the building.[3] A fire at a laboratory in South El Monte on 18 November 2024 killed employee Bordin “Tony” Sikarin, 57, of Buena Park.[2] Prosecutors accuse Chien and Jiao of continuing to extract and distribute concentrated cannabis across Los Angeles County despite the deaths of five employees.[1]
The charges follow an investigation named Operation Sugar Diamond, in which more than 150 federal, state and local law enforcement agents served search warrants at nine locations in Los Angeles County, including a large lab in La Verne.[1] At the news conference announcing the charges, District Attorney Nathan Hochman called it one of the biggest illegal cannabis operations in Los Angeles County.[3] Police arrested six people that Wednesday and seized about 27 tons of illegal cannabis products, which the district attorney’s office estimated were worth more than $100 million.[3] The searches turned up mason jars of sugar diamond crystals with more than 90% THC as well as cannabis products and bags of marijuana left after extraction, the newspaper reported.[3] District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the case showed the deadly results of illegal operations that put greed over employee and neighbour safety.[2]
At a hearing on 11 September 2025, Chien and Jiao both pleaded not guilty, and Chien was ordered held without bail while Jiao was held in lieu of $2 million bail.[4] Both men were due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on 7 October 2025, when a date was to be set for a hearing on whether the evidence allowed the case to go to trial.[4]
