Couple plead not guilty to multiple drug charges

A 10-year veteran of the Honolulu Police Department and his girlfriend entered pleas of not guilty to multiple drug charges in Circuit Court on Thursday.

Former officer Alan Ahn, 54, who was a member of HPD’s Traffic Division until last week, was indicted Aug. 26 by an Oahu grand jury on four counts of promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree and four counts of promoting a harmful drug in the second degree.

Tiffany Masunaga, 28, who was arrested with Ahn, is charged with promoting a dangerous drug in the first degree, four counts of promoting a dangerous drug in the second degree and three counts of promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree.

Both are free after posting bail of $40,000 each. Their trial is set to begin during the week of Nov. 2.

The indictment charges Ahn with marijuana possession and multiple counts of cocaine promotion. It also charges Ahn with promoting hydrocodone, fentanyl and alprazolam, and with possessing drug paraphernalia.

Hydrocodone and fentanyl are prescription painkillers. Alprazolam is an anti-anxiety drug.

Narcotics and vice officers arrested Ahn and Masunaga during an Aug. 13 raid on a home in McCully on Waiola Street where Masunaga lives, police said.

A the time of the drug arrest, Ahn was on restricted duty while the department investigated a domestic abuse case. Ahn had been arrested in July for investigation of abuse.

The prosecutor’s office said the abuse investigation was initially declined, then reviewed a second time in August and declined again.

The indictment also charges Ahn’s girlfriend with knowingly distributing or possessing with the intent to distribute cocaine within 750 feet of a school, public park or public housing complex. The McCully Recreation Center is on Waiola Street. Lunalilo Elementary School is at Citron and Pumehana streets, one block from the recreation center. And on either end of Waiola Street are Washington Middle School and Honolulu Stadium Park.