KAILUA-KONA — Hawaii police recovered a large cache of illegal narcotics during the execution of a search warrant at a Pāhoa residence.
KAILUA-KONA — Hawaii police recovered a large cache of illegal narcotics during the execution of a search warrant at a Pāhoa residence.
On Friday, officers and detectives from the Area I Vice Section, Criminal Investigations Section, and Criminal Intelligence Unit executed a search warrant at a residence in the Ainaloa subdivision in the Puna District and recovered over 1,500 grams of marijuana packaged for distribution, over 580 grams of crystal methamphetamine packaged for distribution, over 30 grams of heroin, over 115 grams of cocaine, over 750 opioid prescription pills and just under $15,000 in U.S. currency.
Arrested at the residence were 45-year-old Jason Ledward and 31-year-old Jasmine Enriques, both of Pāhoa.
On Saturday, Ledward was charged with three counts of first-degree promoting a dangerous drug, two counts of second-degree promoting a dangerous drug, fourth-degree promoting a harmful drug, second-degree commercial promotion of marijuana, and prohibited acts related to drug paraphernalia and his bail was set at $460,000.
Enriques was charged with third-degree promoting a dangerous drug and her bail was set at $5000.
Both Ledward and Enriques are being held at the East Hawaii Detention Facility, unable to post bail and pending their initial court appearance.
The street value of the seized narcotics is just over $143,000.00 and the U.S. currency was seized for forfeiture.
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The east side sure likes their drugs.
I’m a little skeptical about the taking the cash for forfeiture prior to a guilty verdict. Not that I’m interested in defending these two particularly, just seems like an area that’s ripe for abuse. Is Hawaii one of the jurisdictions where law enforcement then gets to spend that cash however it chooses?
Based on reports by the State auditor and others, Hawaii is apparently one of the worst in the nation when it comes to guidelines, transparency, accountability, the accused rights, etc. regarding asset forfeiture… and about 1/4 of assets seized here were not accompanied by criminal charges. So it appears that the answer to your question is probably “yes.”
Come on, this is probably all just a big mistake ( . Y . )