LOS ANGELES — The bargain buyers drifted out of a popular Little Saigon fruit shop with tote bags full of pale brown longan and hairy red rambutan, barely glancing at the dirt-smeared face of Duc Tran.
Tran hovered near a door, hinting to passers-by that he was thirsty with a drinking gesture and a finger to his throat. In Vietnamese, he asked for "tien mua mi" — money for a bowl of noodles.
He was a car salesman until chasing the high of methamphetamines took over his life.
