Police shut down O'ahu crime ring

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Police say an islandwide crime ring orchestrated burglaries and car break-ins for more than a year to raise cash to fuel gambling and drug parties at O'ahu hotels.

City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, with Honolulu Police Department Chief Boisse Correa, talks about the task force that busted a crime ring involved in theft and drugs on O'ahu. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Police recovered 475 items with an estimated value of more than $250,000. Police said 37 victims lost property, and efforts are being made to return the property to them.

Community leaders yesterday said they were relieved that police had broken up a large-scale burglary operation. Several expressed hope that the arrests would deter future crime and reduce the city's crime rate.

"I know it (burglaries) is a concern that a lot of people have," said Albert Fukushima, chairman of the Pearl City neighborhood board. "Hopefully, this is the source of a major gang operating islandwide and their capture will curtail activities islandwide."

Greg Knudsen, a member of the Hawai'i Kai neighborhood board, also praised the arrests.

"That is certainly welcome," said Knudsen. "If this one group was responsible for such a large amount, we hope that might result in a reduction of crime in the area."

The burglars were brazen, often entering homes in broad daylight. They also were skilled, police said, and on at least one occasion, group members posed as landscapers to explain their presence in a victim's yard.

The group did two to three burglaries a week and drove from house to house in stolen cars, police said.

A special task force, made up mostly of Honolulu police officers and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, was formed in early October to investigate, track down and break up the ring.

"I think what is significant is the cooperation" between local and federal law enforcement agencies, Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa said in a news conference yesterday. "We're looking at being pro-active and doing things quicker. We're going after the career criminals who are predators in our community."

The break came when officer Clem Enoka III noticed several similarities in burglary cases that he was working and eventually connected them.

Detectives found a hotel receipt in a stolen car with the name of one of the members of the crime ring written on it, police said yesterday. The detective took the receipt to the hotel and learned the names of several other suspects, Maj. Bart Huber said.

After further investigation, police went to other hotels and found the names of the same 12 people, police said.

Soon after police realized they had uncovered a ring of criminals, a traffic stop in East Honolulu yielded one of the suspects and a car full of stolen property, police said.

Further evidence came from recovered stolen property and information given to police by suspects arrested during the investigation.

The ring's 12 primary members would break into cars and homes and steal and sell their goods to A1 Pawnshop in Kalihi, police said. There, the owner would give them cash without filling out receipts for the items, which is illegal, police said.

"The pawnshop owner was an easy conduit for cash," officer Enoka said.

The owner of A1 Pawnshop, Quang Pham, 43, was arrested and charged with three counts of attempted second-degree theft on suspicion of buying stolen items from undercover officers and not writing up receipts.

The thieves took the cash and rented several hotel rooms where they would host parties where attendees binged on drugs and gambled, police said.

The group's drug of choice was crystal methamphetamine, and they held several high-stakes card games, police said. They evaded police by picking and moving between different hotels in Honolulu, Waikiki and near the airport.

Police have forwarded 26 burglary cases, two robbery cases, four auto theft cases, 12 theft cases, and 14 drug promotion and paraphernalia cases to the city prosecutor's office and other cases are still pending, Correa said. The ATF was able to turn over two cases of stolen firearms to federal prosecutors. The firearms were recovered during the investigation by the task force.

"It is essential that there be follow-up with incapacitation by incarceration for these kind of people," said City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle. "These people are poster children for property criminals that ought to go to jail."

Police said more cases could be made from existing evidence collected during the investigation. Police yesterday did not release the complete list of charges the suspects are facing because they and prosecutors are still finalizing cases.

Property crime is the most prevalent form of crime in Hawai'i and residents and police fear that it is fueled by the state's ice epidemic.

Last year, Hawai'i's property crime rate was 5,335.9 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2003, according to an annual FBI report. There are 905,301 people living on O'ahu.

In Honolulu, property crime fell from 54,670 in 2002 to 48,306 last year.

A look at property crimes in other cities shows that property crime is higher here than in San Francisco, which has 4,058.4 property crimes per 100,000 residents, San Diego (3,290.1) and Las Vegas (4,560.6). Only Phoenix has a higher property crime rate, 5,852.6.

San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix are used by the Honolulu Police Department as benchmarks for policing practices and staffing issues.

Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.