Federal authorities believe a man who was arrested last week for allegedly importing 176 pounds of marijuana from California had already received more than 400 pounds worth $1.5 million in a bizarre case in which police were tipped off by a citizens group identifying itself as "Kingdom of Hawaii Marshals."
Honolulu Police Department officers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested John Zachary Katsu Toyofuku on June 7 when he showed up at a location in Manoa to pick up the marijuana from a shipping company. The marijuana was packed in 1-pound, vacuum-sealed bags in shipping crates inside a shipping container, federal prosecutor Michael Kawahara said Friday in U.S. District Court.
After he was arrested, Toyofuku told authorities he knew the container held "a lot of drugs" and that "this was a suicide mission" but if he didn’t do it "he would be in a lot of trouble," the DEA said in documents it submitted in court last week.
The DEA said it learned that Honolulu police received information about a large shipment of marijuana that was seized by a group of citizens calling itself Kingdom of Hawaii Marshals who wanted to turn the case over to law enforcement. The shipping container was near the Royal Kunia Golf Course in Waipahu.
When police and DEA agents arrived at the container, they found six crates inside, all similar in shape and size. The Kingdom of Hawaii Marshals had already searched one of them, which contained 12 pounds of marijuana, the DEA said.
Kawahara said the other five crates held the other 164 pounds of marijuana.
No further information on Kingdom of Hawaii Marshals or who belongs to the group was immediately available.
On Friday, Kawahara asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard L. Puglisi to order Toyofuku held in custody without the opportunity to post bail pending trial. He said following his arrest, Toyofuku, 32, lied to court officials about where he lived. When the DEA later learned that Toyofuku had a residence on Woodlawn Drive in Manoa, they searched it and found evidence that he had received previous shipments of marijuana, Kawahara said.
Kawahara said the front door was unlocked and that the residence appeared to have been "cleaned out" before the DEA agents arrived.
He said the DEA found about 40 of the same kind of vacuum-sealed bags that held the seized marijuana. The bags had been cut open and were empty. They had labels on them with the names of different kinds of marijuana strains.
Kawahara said the DEA also found notes suggesting that Toyofuku had already received four previous shipments of marijuana worth $1,500,500. The notes valued the marijuana at $3,700 per pound, suggesting that Toyofuku had already received more than 400 pounds of marijuana.
Puglisi denied Kawahara’s request and ordered Toyofuku released to a halfway house on $50,000 unsecured, signature bond. Toyofuku’s lawyer said he has no prior convictions, has ties to the community and doesn’t have a passport.
In August 2010, Honolulu police arrested and charged Toyofuku on kidnapping, robbery, assault and firearm charges.
The state said Toyofuku and three or four other men abducted a 24-year-old man, then bound, gagged and beat him until he agreed to lure another victim to a Windward Oahu home. They then bound, beat and threatened the second victim, a 33-year-old man, if he didn’t give them money.
Police said an off-duty officer spotted Toyofuku and another man loading one of the kidnapping victims into the back of a van. With the off-duty officer in pursuit of the van, one of the kidnapping victims was pushed or fell out of the back of the van. The captors later abandoned the van, leaving the other victim inside.
The state was forced to drop the prosecution because it was unable to find either of the two victims for trial.
