Guilty plea in ‘ice’ and gaming
A Waialua man admitted yesterday to participating in a drug-trafficking ring and a North Shore gambling ring that involved a FBI employee and three Honolulu police officers.
"I believe I'm going to do what's right and (will be) held responsible for my actions," said John Saguibo, 40, before entering a guilty plea with U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren for conspiring to distribute a controlled substance and conspiring to aid an illegal gambling operation.
As part of his plea, Saguibo agreed to cooperate in government investigations and testify against co-defendants.
Prosecutors said Saguibo conspired to distribute 500 grams, or 1.1 pounds, of a mixture containing detectable amounts of methamphetamine. An indictment charged Saguibo with distributing crystal methamphetamine, or "ice," between 2003 and 2004.
In the case last week, Charmaine Moniz, a former FBI accounting technician, was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to unauthorized access of an FBI computer and using the information to assist the drug dealing activities of her husband, Eric Moniz.
In the gambling case, prosecutors said Saguibo conspired with others to obstruct state laws against gambling. The indictment said that from November 2004 to March 2005, Saguibo worked with police officers who informed him of impending gambling raids in Waialua.
When Kurren asked Saguibo what he had done, Saguibo said that in the drug case he delivered a box without asking what was in the box and was "just being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Saguibo said in the gambling case, police officers were calling him and giving him directions. "I was working there as a gate man," he said. "I was just taking orders from the police."
Saguibo faces a life sentence and a $4 million fine for the drug charge and up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the obstruction of gambling laws charge. His sentencing was set for March 3.
Bryson Apo, one of the three police officers involved in the gambling ring, was sentenced in June to 18 months in prison for warning cockfight operators of upcoming trials. A second officer has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, while a third is awaiting trial.