A special-education teacher on leave from her job at Leilehua High School pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to conspiring to distribute and possessing with the intent to distribute more than 200 grams of methamphetamine.
Janice Pualani Fontes, 51, faces a prison term of between five and 40 years at sentencing in November. Until then she remains on home detention.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Inciong said that from January to May, Fontes sent parcels containing $6,000 in drug proceeds each to a drug supplier in California. She also provided the supplier, Raul Balboa Garcia, Hawaii addresses to send the drugs. In exchange, Garcia paid Fontes $2,500 per month, Inciong said.
Fontes said at first she didn’t know that the money she was sending to California was drug proceeds. When she asked Garcia about it, she said he told her, "‘Don’t ask questions. You don’t need to know. You’re just sending money. You won’t get in trouble.’"
She said the money was dropped off in her mailbox. The drugs were sent to her Wahiawa address and the address of her son, also in Wahiawa, but she said that she never saw the drugs.
Fontes said she found out in March that the money was drug proceeds, but continued to send the cash parcels to California.
She said she has been friends with Garcia for 28 years, including 17 years he spent in prison in California.
Her lawyer, Myles Breiner, said Fontes married Garcia after his release from prison last year but later learned the marriage was not valid because Garcia was still married to someone else.
Garcia remains in custody without the opportunity for release on bail. His trial is scheduled for October.
