Prison guard sentenced for smuggling ice

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

A prison guard who admitted smuggling crystal methamphetamine into Halawa Correctional Facility in April was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor yesterday to seven years and six months in federal prison.

Guard Melvin Moisa and his co-defendant, defense attorney Thomas Stephen Leong, were charged in April with possession with intent to distribute the drug known as ice. Moisa pleaded guilty in July, while Leong pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial.

Leong was arrested in the parking lot at Aloha Tower Marketplace after allegedly paying an undercover police officer $3,000 for two ounces of crystal methamphetamine.

Leong later led authorities to Moisa, who was arrested in Kailua after accepting the ice and $2,000 from Leong, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Seabright has described the $2,000 as a "mule fee" for smuggling the drug into Halawa.

The arrests came after a Halawa inmate tipped off police and federal authorities to an ice pipeline into the prison.

Reach David Waite at 525-8030 or at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com.