Guard pleads guilty in 'ice' smuggling case

Associated Press

A prison guard accused of trying to smuggle crystal methamphetamine into the Halawa Correctional Facility pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court.

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." Leong has pleaded not guilty.

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 the defense attorney, according to a criminal complaint 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 police and federal authorities to an ice pipeline into the prison.

Moisa will be sentenced in December.