Grand jury indicts alleged prison gang

Seventeen Hawaii inmates are accused by federal prosecutors of running a prison gang that bribed personnel, distributed drugs and assaulted other inmates.

They were named in a Sept. 12 grand jury indictment charging them with conspiracy, drug distribution, bribery, tax fraud and assault to further a criminal enterprise. Federal prosecutors asked the court to keep the indictment under seal until Tuesday, after the first batch of defendants was in federal custody.

According to the indictment, the defendants bribed prison personnel to smuggle contraband into prison; distributed meth­am­pheta­mine, marijuana and cigarettes to other inmates; and assaulted other prisoners in order to join or further their position in the gang.

On Tuesday eight Hawaii inmates and one former state prison guard pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to racketeering charges as members or associates of the prison gang USO Family.

The eight inmates who went to court Tuesday are Charlie Esera, Billy Wond, Opherro Jones (the alleged USO leader at Halawa Correctional Facility), David Kahui, William Shin­yama (the alleged former USO leader in Arizona), Tinei­malo Adkins, Akoni Davis and Travis Nishi­oka. The former Hawaii corrections officer is Feso Malu­fau.

The inmates who have yet to go to court are Robin Lee, James Moser, Paul Togia, Vao­pele Iiga (one of the alleged founders of USO), Clarence Butler, Pota­ufa Ula, Shadrach Unea, Moses Thompson and Daniel Keno­lio.

Lee is charged with filing false tax returns for four of his co-defendants to claim $12,290 in tax refunds.

"Then that money was turned into money they used to bribe, buy drugs and pay people. Basically, they funded their operation (by) stealing from the Treasury," said Kenneth Hines, special agent in charge of criminal investigation of the Internal Revenue Service’s Seattle field office.

Malufau was to face trial in federal court next month on charges that he accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to smuggle contraband into the Halawa prison and failed to report the money as income on his 2011 bankruptcy filing. The government dropped the case against him when he was indicted for alleged racketeering. The Department of Public Safety fired Malu­fau last September.

Another former prison guard, John Joseph Kalei Hall, was sentenced in June to 13 months in prison for smuggling cigarettes into the Halawa prison and selling them to inmates. At his sentencing the federal prosecutor said Hall’s actions helped fuel racketeering by USO. The government has since made a secret request to modify Hall’s sentence.

USO is the abbreviation for United Samoan Organization. "Uso" also means "brother" in Samoan.

State prison officials say Hawaii inmates started USO in 1995 when the state sent them to a private prison in Texas, where they had violent conflicts with inmates from the mainland. At that time the gang had a selective membership and was known as 808 Click. The gang later opened membership to all prisoners from Hawaii and changed its name to USO.

When the state separated Hawaii prisoners from inmates from the mainland, membership in USO dropped, but it is still the dominant gang among Hawaii inmates, state prison officials said.

And its activities have spread beyond prison walls, said Vida Bottoms, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Hono­lulu field office.

The FBI said in documents it submitted in federal court in January that its investigation of USO Family led to the arrest and indictment of USO members who were distributing in Hawaii meth­am­pheta­mine they obtained from a member in Utah.