Posted on: Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Three charged with smuggling meth
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
A California man whom federal officials characterize as a "high-quantity methamphetamine distributor" in Hawai'i has been charged with drug smuggling.
Jose Diaz of Oakdale, Calif., was charged in a federal complaint with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Also charged were Alfred "Poch" Nobriga Jr. of the Big Island and Chandra Pounds, described by authorities as one of several female couriers Diaz used to smuggle drugs from California to the Islands.
Over the past five months, Diaz has admitted smuggling 20 pounds of methamphetamine, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court. Diaz said he had used cattle containers to ship the drugs, but recently began to use women who concealed a pound of methamphetamine "on their bodies" and traveled to Hawai'i, the affidavit said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni declined to comment on the ongoing investigation but acknowledged that the amount allegedly smuggled by Diaz was "significant."
According to the affidavit:
On May 5, Big Island police notified federal authorities that Diaz was using a woman to bring a pound of methamphetamine from California to Hilo and that the woman, identified in the affidavit as Pounds, would be staying at a Hilo hotel. An unnamed informant told authorities that Pounds would be staying in a room registered to Nobriga, an associate of Diaz.
Agents with the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force followed Nobriga and Pounds as they left the hotel and stopped Nobriga's Ford pickup truck at a Hilo gas station. Agents found more than a pound of methamphetamine in the truck, as well as a loaded AK-47 automatic rifle and a .22 caliber rifle.
Nobriga told authorities that the drugs found in his truck came from Diaz and he had received at least five shipments from Diaz over six months. California task force members raided Diaz's home on Saturday and seized $14,000 in cash, and drug notes and ledgers, the affidavit said.
Reach Curtis Lum at 525-8025 or culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.
