Navy woman, 2 civilians accused of running ice lab
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
A Navy woman and two civilians have been arrested and accused of operating a crystal methamphetamine or "ice" lab in the Radford Terrace Navy housing area.
The three were arrested Thursday night at the Peltier Avenue home of the Navy woman and her husband. A raid of the home was conducted by the Honolulu Police Department, state Public Safety Narcotics Enforcement Division, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The woman was identified as Theresa Moss, according to an affidavit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court. She was in military custody and faces charges under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.
Federal authorities yesterday charged Moss' husband, Jimmy Yasay, and another person, Faleu Liilii, with conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine. They were being held in federal custody.
The housing area has no security gate and is easily accessible, Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis said.
"Anytime you have somebody with a drug lab in Navy housing it's very serious, but it's also very rare ... I don't think there's a systemic problem of drug use in either the Navy or among Navy dependents," Davis said. "This is certainly an unusual event and not one that we think is indicative of a larger systemic problem."
Navy officials would not discuss the specifics of the case, but NCIS Special Agent Jason Dyer said in the affidavit that investigators recovered items used to produce ice in the trash at the couple's home Wednesday.
At about 7 p.m. Thursday, the three were arrested and admitted manufacturing methamphetamine in the residence, the affidavit said. Agents used a search warrant and recovered ice-producing ingredients and equipment, Dyer said.
Yasay and Liilii also told agents that they had earlier dumped other materials used in the lab in a trash bin in Waipahu. The items were recovered Thursday by members of the Hawai'i High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force.
Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8025.
