DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM A clandestine lab response investigator, left, and crime scene supervisor Dean Yamamoto inspected suspected drug-making substances collected yesterday at an Ulupaina Street raid.

Neighbors help police
bust drug lab

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By Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com

A detective commended Kailua neighbors for helping police arrest two men who allegedly ran a drug lab out of an Ulupaina Street home.

Neighbors were supportive and assisted police by writing down the license plate numbers of vehicles driving to and from the Kailua home, said Detective John Shaw of the Honolulu Police Department's Narcotics/ Vice Division.

Police arrested the two 50-year-old men yesterday after an undercover officer bought drugs from them, police said. One suspect had seven prior convictions and was on parole, and the other had prior misdemeanor offenses, Shaw said.

Members of the Police Department's Special Services Division raided the home yesterday at about 10:40 a.m. Police confiscated crystal methamphetamine or "ice," black tar heroin and marijuana, they said.

The raid followed five to six narcotics purchases by undercover police officers since December, police said.

Suspicious items such as a plastic 7-UP bottle filled with dark liquid and a small iodine bottle believed to be used to make crystal methamphetamine were taken by officers of the Laboratory Response Team. A container full of unused needles and syringes along with a syringe filled with liquid were found in the home, Shaw said. Equipment used to manufacture narcotics was also taken from the home, police said.

Neighbor Tom Lopez complained to police about 50 times about vehicles speeding to and from the home.

"It'll be much quieter now," said Lopez, 57, who has lived on Ulupaina Street for three years.

Seventy-three-year-old Mildred Swift said she and her husband, Herbert, noticed vehicles parked outside of her home using their lights to signal the suspects.

Yesterday's raid was the second on Ulupaina in 17 months. In September 2000, police and state drug agents recovered chemicals, glassware and flasks used to manufacture crystal methamphetamine at another house.

"It's been a really good neighborhood until a couple of years ago," said Swift, who has lived on Ulupaina Street for 50 years.

"I'm happy. I'm very glad," said Swift of the drug raid.