Drug dealers get
maximum under fed
law in crackdown

'Weed and Seed' aims to give
neighborhoods back
to the people

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Two men convicted of drug charges in the Kalihi-Palama/Chinatown Weed and Seed program yesterday received maximum sentences under federal law.

They are among 45 defendants arrested and charged for drug offenses since police and federal officials began the crackdown in May. The effort focuses on weeding out drug dealers and prosecuting them under tougher federal laws to give communities a chance to take back their neighborhoods.

Ernest Thomas Jr., 62, convicted for possessing "rock" cocaine, received a maximum 24-month sentence, based on his prior criminal record, plus a year of supervised release.

Allen Watson Jr., 39, convicted of possessing rock cocaine and distributing it within 1,000 feet of Aala Park, received a 20-month sentence based on his criminal history, and six years of supervised release.

As a requirement of supervised release, both are banned from the downtown Honolulu district bounded by Lunalilo Freeway, Nuuanu, Bethel, Nimitz, Dillingham and Kokea Street. If they violate that condition, both will be hauled back to prison.

Watson and Thomas have a history of drug abuse and must undergo drug treatment.

They were the first defendants to go to trial. To date, 24 people arrested under the program have pleaded guilty and received similar sentences, but not maximum terms, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Thomas.

Thomas and Watson received the maximum sentences because of their criminal histories, he said.

Thomas has five narcotics and numerous contempt convictions, the latest while he was on parole for a state conviction.

"It's clear Thomas has an utter lack of responsibility and regard for the court system and laws," said U.S. District Judge David Ezra, who added he would have given him more prison time had sentencing guidelines permitted. "Somebody has to tell Mr. Thomas the buck stops, and in this court, the buck stops here."

Watson was convicted of a drug offense in 1997, and within a nine-month period was arrested and convicted for selling cocaine near Aala Park.

Watson was sentenced under the Safe Streets Act, which calls for a mandatory one-year prison sentence and a longer period of supervised release for those convicted of selling narcotics within 1,000 feet of public housing, schools, parks and playgrounds. His sentence, plus six years of supervised release, is almost equivalent to an eight-year term, said U.S. Attorney Steven Alm.

"By his actions, the judge has given the community an eight-year breather from this drug dealer," Alm said. "He won't be back degrading the community and it gives the community a chance to take back the neighborhood."

According to police and residents, arrests have gone down nearly 50 percent around the Mayor Wright Housing area where much of the drug dealing took place, Alm said.

Children at nearby Kaiulani School and drug abusers who are participating in a rehabilitation program at Akepo Arms no longer are seeing the dealers that used to sell drugs openly on the streets, he said.