Cabbab admits
to stealing ‘ice’

The police officer and former
UH baseball standout pleads
guilty to the drug theft

A Honolulu police officer has admitted he stole what he believed to be 20 pounds of "ice" from a Makiki storage locker last December intending to sell it.

Harold Cabbab Jr., 35, pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Leslie Kobayashi as charged in a Dec. 22 indictment to possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture containing methamphetamine.

"I was given knowledge by an informant that drugs would be at the storage locker, and willingly agreed to participate in stealing drugs in the locker and giving it to someone else to distribute it," Cabbab told the court as his wife, former University of Hawaii volleyball player Jenny Wilton, other family members and supporters looked on. He also acknowledged that he believed the drugs were crystal methamphetamine.

Under a plea agreement, Cabbab has agreed to give a truthful statement of his involvement in this case. In exchange, the government will not object to Cabbab benefiting from a "safety valve" at sentencing where the court could sentence him below the advisory guideline range for telling the truth.

Cabbab, a 10-year veteran of the Honolulu Police Department and a former outfielder with the University of Hawaii baseball team, faces 10 years to life in prison, $4 million in fines and up to five years of supervised release.

A complaint filed Dec. 10 alleges Cabbab and an unnamed acquaintance conspired for almost a month beginning Oct. 13 to steal a shipment of drugs in hopes of making a potential $100,000 each. In nearly a half-dozen taped recordings, the two discussed ways to pull off the theft, including posing as police involved in a legitimate seizure.

Unbeknownst to Cabbab, the acquaintance was a confidential informant working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The two, wearing shirts emblazoned with HPD, broke into a storage locker near the Makiki Post Office late on Dec. 9 into the early morning hours of Dec. 10 and took what they believed to be 20 pounds of ice and four kilograms of cocaine.

Federal prosecutors say money appears to be the motive. Transcripts of the tape-recorded conversations between Cabbab and the informant indicate he desperately needed money and said the holidays were the worst time to be broke.

There was no evidence that Cabbab was using drugs, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Kawahara.

Cabbab will remain in custody until his sentencing on Sept. 26.