A key player who brokered information between drug and gambling operators and corrupt police officers got 2 1/2 years in prison yesterday in exchange for his cooperation in three federal cases.

Federal Judge David Ezra also sentenced John Saguibo, 41, to five years' supervised release in two of the three cases.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni recommended a three-year prison term for Saguibo for “;extraordinary cooperation,”; but Saguibo's attorney, Myles Breiner, called for 12 to 18 months in prison.

Saguibo was one of 23 people indicted in 2006, including five officers and a secretary for the FBI, after an extensive FBI investigation.

Saguibo had entered into a plea deal in 2007 with the government for testifying against police officers in both a drug trafficking case and a gambling case involving a Waialua cockfighting operation.

Saguibo was indicted for passing on police information to the drug-trafficking organization and was a source of police information to drug felon Charles Gilman; his father, Douglas Gilman; and his two brothers who were running a cockfighting operation.

Saguibo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 500 or more grams of methamphetamine in the drug case, and to conspiring with police officers Bryson Apo, Kevin Brunn and Glenn Miram to obstruct law enforcement with the intent to facilitate an illegal gambling business.

Saguibo had also provided information against his uncle Benjamin Saguibo, a union leader, in an unrelated case involving the Laborers' Union and theft of union money.