Accused drug dealer pleads not guilty

A Newport Beach man’s trial for allegedly trying to exchange $2 million worth of Ecstasy pills for cocaine is tentatively scheduled for September, prosecutors said Monday.

Alexandru Sabau, 37, is accused of trying to trade 100,000 Ecstasy pills for 25 kilos of cocaine he planned to take to Canada with undercover federal agents. He pleaded not guilty in federal court Monday.

Sabau, a Canadian citizen of Romanian descent, was arrested June 27 after a three-month-long investigation with local and federal authorities culminated in a staged $2 million deal with federal agents.

A series of small arrests in Santa Monica and west Los Angeles led police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Sabau and his Newport Bluffs home in the 9000 block of Residencia, prosecutors said.

According to Sabau’s indictment, between April and June, Santa Monica police and ICE agents monitored a series of alleged drug deals involving Sabau and a federal informant in Newport Beach.

Outside Tully’s Coffee at MacArthur Boulevard and Ford Road in April, Sabau was recorded selling an ICE informant 1,000 ecstasy pills for $3,500, according to the indictment. Authorities claim Sabau was apparently doing surveillance of his own, visiting several stores in the shopping center after the deal and consistently looking around.

Tully’s Coffee employees said Sabau frequented the shop but declined to provide more details of what he did or whom he talked to there.

In a second operation, authorities again arranged a deal between Sabau and their informant. According to the indictment, Sabau sold the informant 5,000 pills for $10,000. During these deals, Sabau repeatedly prodded the informant for a cocaine connection, prosecutors said. The informant told Sabau his connection only worked in large-scale cocaine deals, upward in the range of 25 kilos, or $2 million worth, authorities said.

An undercover federal agent met Sabau posing as a cocaine dealer and arranged for the $2 million deal, according to authorities. When Sabau called the agent days later telling him the Ecstasy was on its way from Canada, authorities made their arrest, prosecutors said. The fact that the Ecstasy came from Canada and the cocaine was going to be sent there, authorities said, is what made the case a federal matter. A search of Sabau’s home turned up $14,000 in cash and a small amount of cocaine, federal officials said. Sabau faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of all charges. His trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 9.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].