Police Beat

Advertiser Staff

Probationer faces bank robbery count

Jay R. Maruyama has been charged with robbing Bank of Hawaii's downtown branch on Wednesday.

According to an affidavit filed in federal court yesterday, Wayne K.C. Wong, a probation officer with the federal court system in Hawai'i, saw a bank surveillance photo published in The Advertiser on Thursday and recognized Maruyama.

As it turns out, Wong is the probation officer for Maruyama, who is on supervised release after serving time in federal prison for two bank robberies that he committed in 1995, according to the affidavit.

Maruyama also was convicted in 1992 of a bank robbery in 1991, the affidavit said. It said Maruyama turned himself in to Honolulu police on Thursday.

Big Isle police grab 4,629 pot plants

A five-day marijuana eradication effort on the Big Island resulted in the seizure and destruction of 4,629 plants, police said yesterday.

The search-and-destroy mission located 155 plots concentrated in the Puna, North and South Hilo, Hamakua and North and South Kohala areas, police said.

Last month, police destroyed 12,418 marijuana plants found on 675 plots in a five-day operation in the East Hawai'i area.

The latest operation included police officers from the Big Island, Maui and O'ahu, National Guard troops and federal drug agents.