Kauai man is arrested
with meth at airport

LIHUE » A Kauai police officer deputized as a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent arrested a man who was allegedly carrying a half-pound of methamphetamine, Kauai police said Thursday.

Acting on a tip, police said, they arrested Kevin K. Costa-Brum at Lihue Airport after he arrived from Honolulu last week.

Costa-Brum, of Kauai, is being held in federal custody on Oahu on federal drug-trafficking charges, Kauai police said.

Using federal "Walk and Talk" procedures, the deputized DEA agent searched Costa-Brum and found 225 grams of methamphetamine, valued at $32,000, taped to his body, officials said.

While the state courts ruled a "walk-and-talk" procedure unconstitutional in the 1980s, federal law enforcement agencies are allowed to use it and have done so for years. In "walk and talk," officers approach suspected drug smugglers, strike up a conversation and ask them to consent to a search.

Kauai police said they have had programs to deputize officers for walk-and-talk programs since the 1990s. On Kauai, however, the federal procedure had not led to any arrests until Costa-Brum's detention, a police official in the Vice/Narcotics Ice Task Force said.

All the other county police departments have similar programs, police said.