Five people were arrested in connection with a Pacific coast drug ring accused of shipping hundreds of pounds of meth using a Delta Air Lines employee and commercial flights between Hawaii and Southern California, according to a criminal complaint released this week.
Document: Criminal Complaint (PDF)
Four men and one woman face federal drug conspiracy charges after their Tuesday arrests.
The suspects are accused of stashing hundreds of pounds of methamphetamines in couriers' checked luggage going from California to Hawaii, and money going the other way from June 2011 to January 2012.
Federal authorities are not talking about the case because it's pending in court, but court records reveal how the alleged ring worked.
Walter Dominguez, who lives in California, allegedly obtained meth from Mexico and supplied it to a distributor in Hawaii, identified in court papers as Larry "Pearl City" Chung.
Once the drugs reached Hawaii and were sold, another man, Lloyd Talia, allegedly collected the proceeds, and gave the money to husband and wife Falefia and Sifatutupu Fuamatu.
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Sifatutupu Fuamatu, a ramp service agent with Delta in Hawaii, admitted to using her state of Hawaii Air Operations Area security badge to bypass TSA's security checkpoints, according to court records. The money was then hidden in couriers' checked bags by Delta employees working inside the airport, according to the complaint.
At least eight other people allegedly involved in the ring were arrested in May 2011, including at least one suspected courier, identified as Jordan "The Barber" Fonoti, whose statement help investigators unravel the ring, according to court documents.
The operation's ringleader was identified as John Tai, who was arrested on June 24, 2011, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Authorities used a ruse to glean information about the operation from his Blackberry, documents show.
Delta is cooperating with investigators, said a Delta spokesperson.
