Updated at 3:08 p.m., Thursday, January 18, 2007
Hearing set for HPU softball star charged in drug case
Advertiser Staff
A bail hearing is set for 11 a.m. tomorrow for Hawaii Pacific University softball player Kellie Nishikida, who was arrested over the weekend with three other women on a federal drug charge.
According to documents filed in U.S. District Court here, Nishikida was arrested Saturday night by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Army's Criminal Investigation Division as she sat in her car at the Wal-Mart store in Pearl City.
The law enforcement officials were investigating a tip that the women were involved in selling the illicit drug Ecstasy to Schofield Barracks soldiers, the documents said.
The documents allege that:
Government officials began an investigation of Nishikida and others after tips from an informant and other sources indicated the women were part of a ring selling Ecstasy on military bases and elsewhere. (Other locations were not disclosed.)
On Saturday, an undercover Army investigator spoke with one of the four women, Natasha Hanson, who agreed to sell him 60 tablets of the drug at the 24-hour Shoppette at Schofield Barracks. Hanson arrived at the store about 10 p.m. in a car driven by Krystle Kido, also one of the four women arrested in the case. Kido drove away, and Hanson was arrested when she came out of the store.
Hanson was taken to a Criminal Investigation Division office, where she waived her constitutional rights and admitted going to the store to sell the Ecstasy pills to the undercover officer. She said Kido drove her to the store knowing the object of the trip was to sell the pills. Hanson admitted carrying the 60 pills in a plastic bag hidden in her bra. She told investigators she flushed the pills down a toilet while she was left alone in the CID interview room at Schofield.
Kido was arrested when she returned to the Schofield store to pick up Hanson. She waived her constitutional rights and said Hanson had obtained the pills from a woman named Kellie (later identified as Kellie Nishikida.) Kido said Nishikida gave the drugs to Hanson and that she (Kido) obtained 50 Ecstasy pills from Nishikida as well with the intention of passing them on to Jade Dixon, who intended to sell the drugs to Schofield Barracks soldiers.
On Saturday night, investigators received information from an informant who said Dixon was on base and had the drugs with her. Agents closed in on Dixon and arrested her. During a search, agents found 50 tablets of Ecstacy on Dixon in a plastic bag in the pocket of a leather coat Dixon was wearing.
After she was arrested, agents monitored a call Kido made to Nishikida asking for 60 more pills to sell. Nishikida agreed to sell the drugs to Kido for $1,000 and to meet her in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
Drug agents and Army investigators went to the Pearl City Wal-Mart, spotted Nishikida sitting in a car and arrested her after spotting a plastic bag on the console that contained light green pills.
Nishikida was taken to the Federal Detention Center near the airport, where she admitted selling 62 tablets to Hanson earlier in the day and selling 50 of the tablets to Kido at the same time, knowing the two intended to resell the pills.
Hanson, Kido, Dixon and Nishikida were then charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
