Felon pleads guilty to fireworks theft and drug possession

A man accused of stealing more than 1,000 pounds of fireworks from the company that puts on the Friday night fireworks shows at Hilton Hawaiian Village pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to being a felon in possession of explosives.

Malcolm Militante, 51, also pleaded guilty to possessing with the intent to distribute five or more grams of methamphetamine. He faces up to 10 years in prison for explosives possession at sentencing in May and between five and 40 years for methamphetamine possession.

He told U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson that he knew the fireworks were stolen when he bought them to resell. He also said he possessed methamphetamine to sell because of his addiction.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Silverberg told Watson that Hawaii Explosives &Pyrotechnic reported to Honolulu police on Nov. 25, 2016, that its truck had been stolen and its storage bunker had been burglarized. The company reported that 1,000 pieces of display fireworks worth $17,000 were missing as well as equipment worth $34,000.

Silverberg said police received a tip the next day that Militante had the stolen fireworks, and staked out his home. They saw Militante load boxes into his mother’s vehicle and tried but were unable to follow him.

He said a confidential informant later purchased 18 fireworks display shells from Militante, and police located the HE&P truck abandoned in Ewa Beach. Police also spoke to Militante’s mother, who told them there were fireworks in the home and that her son had brought them there, and she asked police to take them away.

When police arrested Militante four days later, Silverberg said, Militante told them he paid another man $2,000 for the fireworks and admitted helping to steal them by being the truck driver.

A federal grand jury in November returned an indictment charging Militante with stealing and possessing the fireworks. When Militante was arrested at his mother’s home, Silverberg said, authorities recovered a backpack containing approximately 29 grams of methamphetamine, a digital scale, about 200 small empty zip-seal baggies, a glass pipe, two bottles of prescription drugs prescribed to somebody else and small baggies containing a dried green substance.