A former state inmate whom the FBI has identified as a leader in the Hawaii prison gang USO Family has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute marijuana and methamphetamine outside prison.
Levi Saelua Jr., 49, pleaded guilty to the charge in July in a deal to avoid the prospect of a life prison term. The deal specified the 25-year term. It did not require Saelua to cooperate with the government or testify against his co-defendants.
U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway handed down the sentence Tuesday.
USO is the abbreviation for United Samoa Organization. "Uso" also means "brother" in Samoan. State prison officials say USO is the dominant gang among Hawaii inmates.
Following the indictment in September of 17 Hawaii inmates and one former prison guard on racketeering charges, the FBI said USO operates inside and outside the state prisons.
A federal grand jury indicted Saelua and eight others with distributing and conspiring to distribute marijuana and methamphetamine.
The FBI said in court documents that its agents interviewed USO Family members who identified Saelua as an USO shot caller who was distributing illegal narcotics in Hawaii.
In prison a shot caller is someone in charge of a module and who can "call the shots," authorities said.
The FBI said it tracked the source of methamphetamine Saelua distributed on Oahu to Utah. The agency said it made undercover drug buys from Saelua and intercepted telephone calls between Saelua and some of his co-defendants.
The government said it also has surveillance video and photographs of Saelua receiving and delivering drugs to his co-defendants.
Federal prosecutors said the drug transactions they tied to Saelua did not occur in the state prisons.
Saelua spent time behind bars in Hawaii for assault, drug possession, robbery and attempted armed robbery. The intended victim in the attempted armed robbery fatally shot one of Saelua’s alleged cohorts with a shotgun. Saelua also spent time in federal prison for a drug-related crime.
