HONOLULU (AP) — A package mailed from Las Vegas containing a Golden Nugget casino sweater, a pillowcase and six pounds of methamphetamine led authorities to a man’s Aiea apartment, where he allegedly kept another 14 pounds of crystal meth, a
HONOLULU (AP) — A package mailed from Las Vegas containing a Golden Nugget casino sweater, a pillowcase and six pounds of methamphetamine led authorities to a man’s Aiea apartment, where he allegedly kept another 14 pounds of crystal meth, a large amount of cash and a revolver, according to court documents.
Authorities intercepted the package last week and a postal inspector posing as a mail carrier delivered it to the Kaonohi Street apartment building. The inspector called the unit from the call box and a man asked that it be left at the front desk, said the criminal complaint filed in court.
Agents keeping surveillance watched as Bryant Iwai later picked up the package and went in the elevator to the unit. Authorities knocked on the door, announced “police,” waited for a few minutes when there was no answer and then entered the unit, the documents said.
Officers detained Iwai, who was walking toward them in the living room.
The .38-caliber gun was in “plain view” in the living room, along with the 14 pounds of crystal meth, according to the complaint signed by a Drug Enforcement Administration officer. There was cash was in a kitchen cabinet. There was also a digital scale and other drug dealing-related items.
Iwai told agents this was his third drug parcel he received from Las Vegas and that he paid $60,000 for the meth, which he planned to sell. “He related that this is his job since he’s unemployed and he would sell all the methamphetamine in small amounts to make a huge profit,” the complaint states.
A pound of crystal meth has a Honolulu street value of about $20,000.
About $30,000 in cash was seized from the apartment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Inciong said in court Tuesday at Iwai’s detention hearing. He urged the judge to order Iwai jailed because of the “extraordinarily large amount” of meth involved.
Iwai’s parents, who watched the hearing from the front row of the courtroom gallery, are willing to pay a cash bond for their son to be released to their custody and have him be monitored by a GPS device, Iwai’s federal public defender, Salina Althof, told the judge.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Chang ordered Iwai to a halfway house pending the availability of bed space and availability of GPS monitoring equipment. He must also post $50,000 bond.
