More arrests expected as O.C. jail break dragnet expands

Officials said they expected to make more arrests as the search for three prisoners who escaped from an Orange County jail last week widened.

On Wednesday, officials announced that five people were taken into custody as part of the search.

“They have some kind of connection to the individuals who escaped,” Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said. “Some of them knew these individuals. Some of them were on probation or have warrants.”

She did not say whether authorities believed that those arrested directly helped with the escape plot.

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Jonathan Tieu, Bac Duong and Hossein Nayeri escaped from the jail sometime after 5 a.m. Friday, after the first of two physical inmate counts that are conducted each day. Their daring escape went undetected until late Friday night, when deputies realized they were missing during a second head count.

Police have not provided an update about the fugitives’ possible whereabouts since Monday, but have turned their attention to the Little Saigon neighborhood of Westminster and Garden Grove. Tieu lived in the neighborhood and has local gang connections, authorities said, and Duong is a Vietnamese national who entered the U.S. legally in 1991, though he was ordered deported in 1998.

The sheriff said she was interviewed on local Vietnamese radio and television stations Wednesday, and police previously made pleas for the public’s help in locating the suspects in English and Vietnamese during a news briefing earlier this week.

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