The sex offenders federal authorities said they were seeking when they detained an elderly Hmong man in St. Paul Sunday do not appear to be missing and may not be registered sex offenders.
After federal agents handcuffed 57-year-old ChongLy “saly” Scott Thao, a U.S. citizen, and forced him out of his house at gunpoint and into cold wearing little more than crocs and boxer shorts, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took to social media to say he lived with two criminal aliens — both of them convicted sex offenders who are still at large. DHS officials said earlier this week that the two were at large in St. Paul and “public safety threats.”
The Thao’s family has said he has no knowledge of the two men — one of whom is already in custody within the state prison system at Minnesota Correctional Facility-Faribault, where state records show the offender has resided for the past 16 months.
Lue Moua, 52, currently incarcerated at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Faribault. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Corrections)
Lue Moua, who was born in 1973, has been in state custody since September 2024, serving a sentence for child kidnapping, with an expected release date of January 2027. An ICE detainer is already in place, according to the state Department of Corrections, meaning he is in line to be transferred to federal immigration authorities on his scheduled release date.
In defending the decision to remove Thao from his home at gunpoint, DHS issued a press statement calling Moua his roommate, and one of its “most wanted” and “a criminal illegal alien from Laos … wanted for sexual assault of a minor, rape, kidnapping and domestic violence.”
The statement noted an immigration judge issued him a final order of removal in 2012 but he remains at large.
In fact, Moua is behind bars, and has been for months. Before that, he was homeless, according to the criminal charges that landed him in state custody.
Court records show that in 2023, while living in a tent in a lakeside campsite off a dirt road, he repeatedly removed his ex-wife’s 6-year-old daughter from her home and threatened to harm them both, garnering convictions for felony kidnapping and misdemeanor domestic abuse. He was not charged with sex assault in the case.
Another man named Lue Moua, who was born in 1986, was placed in state custody in June 2020 following a drug conviction, and released under supervised probation in January 2022. His supervised release expires in October 2027.
ICE issued an order in June 2020 that they be notified within 72 hours of his release. DHS published a public statement Wednesday that also listed him among their “most wanted” at large, even though he’s currently listed on state records as being under the supervision of a probation officer from Ramsey County Community Corrections.
A search of the Minnesota Department of Corrections registry of sex offenders who are subject to public notification does not list either of the two Lue Mouas, or another man on the DHS “most wanted” list who was alleged but never proven to have lived with Thao.
On Friday, following coverage of Lue Moua’s imprisonment by Twin Cities broadcast news stations, DHS issued the following statement on X, attributing their inability to find him to the mayor of Minneapolis, who plays no obvious role in the case:
“We are calling on Governor Walz and Mayor Frey to agree to turning this child predator over to ICE, so this criminal can never prey on innocent American children. This is exactly what we have been saying: We need state and local law enforcement engagement and information so we don’t have to have such a presence on the streets.”
The other suspect, Kongmeng “Jack” Vang, was described as dangerous and at large by DHS officials. They said he was wanted for “sexual assault, gang activity and assault,” and that a federal immigration judge had ordered him to be removed from the country in 2016. It does not indicate why ICE failed to do so after he was transferred into their custody that year.
His court history on record shows Vang was convicted of misdemeanor sex assault in 2012, placed on probation, and then, following a probation violation, sentenced to 90 days in the Hennepin County Workhouse a year later.
In November 2016, Vang was convicted of disorderly conduct, but a fifth-degree assault charge was dismissed. He was sentenced to 30 days in the Hennepin County Workhouse and a year of probation.
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Court and prison records show Vang was transferred to ICE’s jurisdiction and held in the Sherburne County Jail from November 2016 to April 2017 on an ICE hold. It’s unclear why he was not deported at that time.
On Thursday, a search of public records showed him living a few hours out of state, with a phone number listed.
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