Posted on: Friday, May 6, 2005

Ex-officer pleads guilty in 'ice' case

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

A former Honolulu police officer faces a prison term of 10 years to life after pleading guilty to stealing what he thought was more than 20 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and almost 9 pounds of cocaine in a sting last fall by police and federal agents.

Harold Cabbab, a 10-year Honolulu Police officer, admitted his guilt before U.S. Magistrate Leslie Kobayashi yesterday.

Cabbab was arrested in December after agents and police saw him and an informant breaking into a storage facility where Cabbab admitted he thought the ice and cocaine were stored.

In court yesterday, with his wife, in-laws and other family members in attendance, Cabbab told Kobayashi that he was given information by an informant that drugs would be at a specific location. He said he understood the drugs would be 20 pounds of ice and about 8.8 pounds of cocaine.

"I willingly agreed to participate in stealing the drugs from the locker and giving it to someone else to distribute it," said Cabbab, dressed in a light blue prison-issue top and dark blue pants. "I believed it (the drugs) was crystal methamphetamine."

Cabbab will be sentenced Sept. 26.

Assistant U.S. attorney Michael Kawahara said Cabbab pleaded guilty to a charge that carries a prison term of 10 years to life in prison. He said Cabbab may qualify for a sentence less than 10 years if he meets certain criteria.

He said he would not support a sentence of probation. "My office would strongly oppose that," he said.

Capt. Frank Fujii, Honolulu Police Department spokesman, declined to discuss the plea.

According to court documents, Cabbab planned to steal ice with another person who was working as an informant for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The plan called for the pair to dress as undercover police officers and steal 18 to 20 pounds of ice and 8.8 pounds of cocaine soon after a shipment arrived from California.

Cabbab told the informant, who recorded about a half-dozen conversations, that he had previously stolen several pounds of marijuana from a drug dealer, the documents show. Cabbab was arrested after federal agents saw him and the informant breaking into a storage locker where agents had planted a large amount of fake ice.

The court documents state that Cabbab appeared in uniform at the informant's residence in mid-October 2004, and the two discussed ways to steal drugs from a dealer. Cabbab said they each would make about $100,000, according to the affidavit.

Cabbab was an outfielder for the University of Hawai'i baseball team from 1989 to 1992.

Advertiser staff writer Ken Kobayashi contributed to this report. Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.