HPU softball player tagged in drug bust
Kellie Nishikida admitted having Ecstasy, documents say
Hawaii Pacific University softball standout Kellie Nishikida is in federal custody, accused of being part of a drug ring that sold Ecstasy at Schofield Barracks.
Officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Army Criminal Investigation Command arrested Nishikida, 20, on Saturday in the parking lot of Wal-Mart Pearl City. She was sitting in her car, allegedly waiting to sell a bag of pills that later tested positive for methamphetamine, according to federal court documents.
Ecstasy is also known as MDMA for methylenedioxymethamphetamine. It is a synthetic, psychoactive drug chemically similar to methamphetamine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Nishikida and three other women accused of being part of the drug ring, who were also arrested Saturday, were to appear in federal court this afternoon for a detention hearing.
According to court documents, Nishikida went to Wal-Mart to sell some Ecstasy to Krystle Kido. Kido already had been arrested by federal officials when she made a phone call to Nishikida to meet at Wal-Mart to buy 60 pills of the drug for $1,000, the court records said.
Federal agents arrested Kido and Natasha Hanson at one of the stores on Schofield Barracks when they went there and sold Ecstasy to an undercover Army criminal investigator. Hanson and Kido admitted going to the Schofield Shoppettes to sell Ecstasy to the undercover investigator, the court documents said.
Both said they went to Schofield to sell the investigator 60 pills of Ecstasy. However, investigators retrieved only two pills from Hanson. Hanson told the investigators she had the pills in a bag in her bra when she was arrested, then flushed them down the toilet when she was left alone, the court documents said.
Kido told the investigators she received the pills from Nishikida, and said she had gotten more of the drug from Nishikida to sell to Jade Dixon, who was going to resell the drug to soldiers at Schofield Barracks. Investigators later located Dixon with the pills and arrested her.
When DEA and Army officials arrested Nishikida, she said she knew why they were there and that the pills they saw in a bag on her car console were Ecstasy, according to the court documents.
Nishikida is a junior outfielder on the HPU softball team. She was named to the Pacific West all-conference first team in her freshman year in 2005. Practice for the 2007 season started last week.
In a written release, officials of the HPU Athletic Department said they are concerned about what has happened but will not comment until the conclusion of the legal and any applicable university or department processes. HPU has codes of conduct for students and student athletes.
