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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, October 17, 2008

Weekends in jail for woman in drug bust

Advertiser Staff

WAILUKU, Maui — A Maui woman was sentenced yesterday to 45 consecutive weekends in jail for helping her husband in a drug-trafficking ring.

Maui Circuit Court Judge Joseph Cardoza also placed Ohia Aniban, 34, on five years' probation in a case that involved the largest drug seizure in county history.

Aniban earlier pleaded no contest to criminal conspiracy and two counts of third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug. Her husband, Patrick Aniban, 44, already is serving 20 years imprisonment for 10 charges that included criminal conspiracy and first-degree methamphetamine trafficking.

During a Jan. 19, 2007, raid on the couple's Kahului home, police recovered 18.5 pounds of cocaine and 6 pounds of crystal methamphetamine worth an estimated $1.5 million and $114,000 in cash.

The cocaine and crystal meth were found in plastic jugs of Folgers coffee and creatine, a nutritional supplement, in a storage area attached to the residence, according to police. Five more jugs containing drugs and three large plastic bags holding crystal meth were stashed in the trunk of a 1965 red Volkswagen Karmann Ghia parked in the garage and covered by a tarp.

The cash was hidden in a safe built into the concrete floor of the garage.

According to evidence in the case, Patrick Aniban traveled to California and Las Vegas in August and November 2006, taking a large amount of cash in carry-on bags that was used to buy the drugs. The cocaine and crystal methamphetamine were packed in the plastic jugs and brought back to Maui in checked luggage.

At the time of the January 2007 raid, Ohia Aniban was working as a first-grade teacher at Christ The King School in Kahului. The Anibans, who have a 10-year-old daughter, also owned two Subway outlets in Kahului and on Moloka'i.

Ohia Aniban had claimed she wasn't involved in the drug operation. Deputy Prosecutor Mark Simonds noted that two bundles of $20 bills totaling $1,700 found in her purse were secured by the same paper bands recovered from the drug cache and floor safe.