Man, 50, charged with moving meth between Oahu and Maui
Federal prosecutors want a 50-year-old Maui man held without bail after he allegedly smuggled pounds of methamphetamine between Oahu and Maui using Mokulele Airlines.
Frank William Keliihanui Kane Jr. of Lahaina was charged Monday by federal criminal complaint with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, being a felon in possession of a firearms and ammunition, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Since March, agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations and officers with the Maui Police Department have been investigating Kane for the 'distribution of crystal methamphetamine ' on Maui, according to a complaint filed Monday.
'Multiple sources of information provided intelligence ' that Kane smuggled 'pound quantities ' of crystal methamphetamine from Oahu to Maui on Mokulele flights, according to an affidavit authored by a DEA agent.
Kane is scheduled for a detention hearing today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aislinn K. Affinito is prosecuting the case.
On May 9, federal agents secured a search warrant to use global positioning system technology to track Kane's mobile phone.
On May 16, federal agents tracked Kane's movements from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport until he arrived at Kahului Airport.
Kane was watched by law enforcement as a friend picked him at the curb and took him home.
Kane was later seen picked up by a brown To yota Tacoma and driven to a park in Kahului. There Kane got out and met a man on a bicycle, and an exchange took place, according to court documents.
Kane was later seen driving his white Tacoma to a gym to lift weights. When he left the gym, he was pulled over on Honoapiilani Highway near Kapoli Street in Wailuku.
Kane was ordered to get out of the car and told that he was the subject of an 'ongoing narcotics investigation.'
Kane then signed two MPD forms waiving his right to an attorney and allowing police and federal agents to search his person, vehicle, bags within the vehicle, digital devices and home.
Before the searches, Kane allegedly admitted that he had a camouflage duffel bag in the truck that contained several ounces of cocaine, two 'ghost ' guns and ammunition.
He also told law enforcement officers that there was a black duffel bag in the truck that contained a pound of crystal methamphetamine.
Police and federal agents seized the two bags and found a little more than a pound of methamphetamine, 171.78 grams of cocaine and a digital scale.
A 9mm ghost gun handgun with two loaded magazines and a ghost gun rifle with two magazines and 100 rounds of ammunition were also found.
In March 2021, Kane was awaiting trial for habitually operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant when he was arrested again for habitual impaired driving and was ordered by a judge not to drive and to wear a device to continuously monitor alcohol in his system, according to The Maui News.
Kane has convictions in 2007, 2011 and 2021 for habitual operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant and was sentenced to over one year of imprisonment.
He has a lifetime revocation of his driver's license.
He has three prior felony convictions and 33 prior convictions in state court dating back to 1997. They include five misdemeanor convictions for cruelty to animals.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Police arrest 16-year-old in connection to shooting near Lincoln High School
Police arrested a 16-year-old Thursday in connection to a shooting that injured another teenager near Lincoln High School earlier in the week. Officers booked the suspect into the Remann Hall Juvenile Detention Facility on suspicion of first-degree assault, unlawful gun possession, and possession of a weapon on school grounds, Tacoma Police said in a news release Thursday evening. The shooting happened after school, about 2:45 p.m., on June 17 in the 700 block of South 37th Street, The News Tribune reported. Police said the boy who was shot, also a 16-year-old, was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening. 'Police identified the location of the shooting, interviewed witnesses, and obtained video surveillance as part of the investigation,' the news release said. Investigators said they found the gun and that there are no other suspects. There was a four-vehicle wreck nearby shortly after the shooting, The News Tribune reported, including a police vehicle on the way to the scene and a school bus that wasn't carrying any students.
2 days ago
DEA informant charged in alleged scheme to extort high-level cocaine traffickers
MIAMI -- A drug informant who helped the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration build some of its biggest cases has been arrested and charged with scheming to extort major cocaine traffickers facing extradition from Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Jorge Hernández, 57, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday with one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud. He remains in custody after being arrested and making his initial court appearance Wednesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. Court papers allege that Hernández operated a scheme starting in 2020 in which he pretended to be a paralegal who, for the right price, could obtain lighter sentences for drug kingpins, according to 17-page FBI affidavit. The FBI alleged that Hernández demanded payments of $1 million from six suspected drug traffickers who ended up surrendering or being extradited to the U.S. In exchange for the payments — which came in the form of cash, jewelry, properties and vehicles in Colombia — Hernández guaranteed short prison sentences that would be served 'in an apartment similar to being on house arrest,' the court papers said. But Hernández never delivered on his promises, nor did he have authority to offer such leniency. As the traffickers who thought they were buying influence grew upset, he would deny responsibility and shift blame to the traffickers' attorneys, the FBI said. Nestor Menendez, an attorney who represented Hernández at his initial appearance, declined to comment. In two decades as a confidential informant, Hernández had been one of federal law enforcement's most prolific case-makers, providing the types of tips and information that led to prosecutions of high seas drug smugglers, a former University of Miami money laundering expert and a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Better known in law enforcement circles by his Spanish nickname Boliche — bowling ball — the beefy, bald-headed Colombian was also the star witness in the 2023 bribery trial of two former DEA supervisors convicted for leaking information on ongoing drug investigations. He got his start as an informant in 2000 shortly after he was arrested in Venezuela, where he had fled to escape drug dealers seeking to kill him, according to a 2023 investigation by The Associated Press. After bribing officials to secure his release, he approached the DEA, admitting to killing three people during his days as a drug runner near his home along Colombia's Caribbean coast. He then began helping the DEA build some of its biggest cases. Agents grew so reliant on Hernández's network of criminal associates across the Western hemisphere that they set him up with a phone and desk at a federal anti-narcotics task force, the AP found. The DEA terminated his cooperation agreement in 2008, court records show, after authorities discovered he had threatened to expose informants as snitches unless they paid him to keep quiet. But he kept close to some of his former DEA handlers and eventually returned to Miami. In 2016, he met DEA agent John Costanzo, who was supervising agents investigating Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a suspected bag man for Venezuela's Maduro. In 2023, Hernández testified against Costanzo and another former DEA agent convicted of taking bribes from narco defense attorneys. Hernández turned the tables on the DEA around the same time he was charged alongside University of Miami professor Bruce Bagley for helping move $3 million on behalf of Saab, who prosecutors said was secretly negotiating a deal to betray Maduro. Those charges remain under seal. In the complaint unsealed Wednesday, the FBI that Hernández is serving a term of probation on a federal conviction for conspiracy to commit money laundering that is set to end in May 2027.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Inside Diddy's Bad Boy empire of threats, violence and bribes. What court revelations expose
At its height, Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment was a show business powerhouse, mixing music, video, fashion, liquor and style into a business that made Combs a billionaire. Combs won praise for his visionary growth and brand management. But federal prosecutors have another word for Bad Boy: a racketeering enterprise. The federal trial in New York City includes an allegation that Combs was involved in mob family-style racketeering with coercion, kidnapping, threats and beatings done to cover up a pattern of sexual assaults, sex trafficking and prostitution. The mogul has publicly and defiantly maintained his innocence even before his arrest last September. Read more: Sean Combs' inner circle reveals a world of guns, abuse, kidnapping and death threats The federal indictment alleges that Combs and his associates lured female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to get women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes while he occasionally watched in gatherings that Combs referred to as 'freak-offs.' Combs gave the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to 'keep them obedient and compliant' during the performances, prosecutors say. Combs' alleged 'criminal enterprise' threatened and abused women and utilized members of his enterprise to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors said. In bringing so-called RICO charges, prosecutors in opening statements said Combs was helped by a cadre of company employees, security staff and aides. They allegedly helped organize the freak-offs and then covered up the incidents. Thus far, Combs is the only one facing criminal charges related to the investigation. Have prosecutors made the case? Prosecutors have so far called nearly 30 witnesses to the stand in Manhattan and are expected to finish up with witnesses this week. They include three women who described graphic sexual assaults, including a woman the defense acknowledged was the key witness, Combs' onetime lover, Casandra "Cassie" Ventura. It was Ventura's lawsuit in 2023 that set off the unraveling of the Combs enterprise with its details of sex, violence and freak-offs. His last former girlfriend, referred to only as Jane in court, described how the freak-offs and coerced sex continued despite the lawsuit and a raid by Homeland Security Investigations until his arrest. She texted Combs pages of Ventura's lawsuit immediately after it was filed. 'I've been crying for three days and am under stress from reading all of this. I keep having nightmares about forced nights and all the times I felt like I couldn't say no. I feel like I'm reading my own sexual trauma,' she wrote, according to Legal Affairs and Trials. Read more: 'Horrible and disgusting': Cassie's graphic testimony of abuse leaves Sean 'Diddy' Combs' fate hanging in balance On another occasion, she said she texted his chief of staff about the threats he made, writing, 'He just threatened me about my sex tapes that he has of me on two phones. He said that he would expose me and send them to my child's father.' Jane is one of three women whose testimony is at the center of the trial, the others being Ventura and a former employee testifying under the pseudonym Mia, who also testified she was sexually assaulted. Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, there are 35 specific offenses, including kidnapping, murder, bribery and extortion, and federal prosecutors need to show a pattern involving at least two overt acts as part of a criminal enterprise. Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, said that to prove RICO, the prosecution must show the existence of not just criminal activity but an actual criminal enterprise. People typically think of the mob, street gangs or drug cartels. But any loose association of two or more people is enough, like Combs' entourage, she said. They also have to show a pattern of racketeering or two or more RICO predicate acts over a 10-year period. That's why the evidence of bribery, kidnapping, obstruction, witness tampering and prostitution is important to the prosecution's case, she said. It will be up to jurors to determine if federal prosecutors proved the RICO charge. R&B singer Ventura, who had a long relationship with Combs, was an early key witness in the prosecution's case. Ventura testified she felt "trapped" in a cycle of physical and sexual abuse by him, and that the relationship involved 11 years of alleged beatings, sexual blackmail and a rape. She claimed Combs threatened to leak videos of her sexual encounters with numerous male sex workers while drug-intoxicated and glistening with baby oil as he watched and orchestrated the freak-offs. Read more: Sean 'Diddy' Combs faces sexual abuse, exploitation allegations from 120 people, including minors One of those freak-offs led to an infamous hotel beating, Ventura testified. Video footage from that March 2016 night shows Combs punching and kicking Ventura as she cowers and tries to protect herself in front of an L.A. hotel elevator bank. He then drags her down the hall by her hooded sweatshirt toward their hotel room. A second angle from another camera captures Combs throwing a vase toward her. She suffered bruising to her eye, a fat lip and a bruise that prosecutors showed was still visible during a movie premiere two days later, where she donned sunglasses and heavy makeup on the red carpet. A cover-up then ensued, according to prosecutors. Ventura stated that the police visited her apartment. She answered a few of their questions, but told the jury she still wanted to protect Combs at the time. 'I would not say who I was talking about,' she told the jury. 'In that moment, I did not want to hurt him in that way. There was too much going on. It was a lot.' Eddie Garcia, the InterContinental Hotel security guard, testified that Combs gave him a brown paper bag containing $100,000 in cash for the video. Garcia said after his supervisor agreed to sell the video recording, he met with Combs, Combs' chief of staff Kristina Khorram and a bodyguard. After Garcia raised concerns about the police, he said Combs called Ventura on FaceTime, handed him the phone and told Ventura to tell Garcia that she also wanted the video "to go away." After that, Garcia said he took the money and split it with co-workers. Read more: Accusing a pop superstar of sex trafficking: What R. Kelly case tells us about Sean 'Diddy' Combs Capricorn Clark, a former assistant to Combs, recalled a 2011 violent incident with Combs. Clark told jurors Combs forced her from her apartment at gunpoint to go with him to musician Kid Cudi's home in December 2011. Once there, Combs and Clark entered the empty house, and then Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, showed up. To avoid getting law enforcement involved, Clark testified, Combs ordered her to call Ventura, who was at that time Combs' ex-girlfirend, and said they need to convince Cudi not to snitch to the cops. "If you guys don't convince him of that, I'll kill all you m—,' Clark quoted Combs saying. Cudi testified that his Porsche was later firebombed in his driveway with a Molotov cocktail. Ventura wasn't Combs' only alleged sex crime victim. Mia, an assistant testifying under that name, described years of sexual abuse, rape and threats. Combs, she said, first sexually assaulted her at his 40th birthday party in New York in 2009, shortly after she began working for him. In the year that followed, she slept in a bedroom at his home, where she was not allowed to lock the door. Through tears, she testified he raped her. "I was frozen. I didn't react. I was terrified and confused and ashamed and scared." Another alleged attack occurred in a bedroom closet where she said Combs grabbed her head and forced her to perform oral sex on him. Under cross-examination, she said she did not initially tell federal prosecutors that Combs sexually assaulted her and acknowledged sending Combs loving messages in the years after the alleged attacks. Jane, his most recent ex-girlfriend, described how she endured drug-fueled sex marathons right up until the hip-hop titan's arrest. Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Ventura, testified that Combs dangled her over a 17-story balcony and tossed her onto balcony furniture in September 2016. 'I will never forget him holding me on that balcony," she said as a defense lawyer challenged the date she provided with evidence of Combs being elsewhere at a hotel across the country. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
