On Monday, federal FBI agents and Maui police executed 14 search warrants and arrested three men for allegedly running gambling operations and dealing methamphetamine and cocaine on Oahu and Maui. Seven guns, two untraceable “ghost” guns, a crossbow, 15 pounds of meth, two pounds of cocaine, 20 digital gambling machines, gambling ledgers, $68,000 in cash and a money counter were seized in the process.
The potentially deadly weapons and drugs seized are evidence of the dangers posed by tolerating, or failing to root out, illegal gambling operations. Hawaii must support further investigation and legal action to shut down these breeding grounds for criminal activity, in all counties.
The effort that went into this week’s arrests and seizures shows that acting against gambling operators is not easy or inexpensive. The FBI and Maui police worked the extensive case for more than four years, patiently gathering evidence, working undercover and cultivating informants.
Law-abiding communities deserve more investigations of this kind. It can be worthwhile to forgo the immediate gratification of shutting down a single game room in favor of knocking down the kingpin.
The group exposed in this latest bust ran a relatively sophisticated operation, according to the criminal allegations: They cycled through burner mobile phones bought under other people’s names to communicate and evade detection, and recruited young people unlikely to be flagged by Transportation Security Administration screening to fly money and drugs between Oahu and Maui.
Maliu Tauheluhelu of Waianae is alleged to have supervised the drug distribution, while also running three illegal game rooms on Oahu. Two of these rooms operated on an unimproved block of Queen Street, just blocks from the gleaming new towers that have come up in Ward Villages. A third gambling den allegedly operated in a “secret VIP lounge” above Tauheluhelu’s Staxx Sports Bar and Grill in Waianae.
Also arrested on Maui were Touanga Niu and Maafu Pani, who allegedly sold drugs and ran an illegal gambling business out of his Snaxx shops in Lahaina and Wailuku. Another man, Desmond Morris of Maui, who has more than 50 prior state arrests and citations, remains at large.
On any given day, between 50 and 80 illegal game rooms are open for business on Oahu alone, the Honolulu Police Department has estimated. The operations are pervasive, and they are distributed around the island, often near residences and families.
The Legislature passed House Bill 2197 this year, toughening criminal penalties against those who work in gaming rooms, in positions such as security, cashiers and card dealers. The bill also lowers the bar for charging landlords who allow gambling on their properties, by changing the requisite state of mind for promoting gambling to “recklessness” for a first-degree felony, or “criminal negligence” for a second-degree felony. It’s a step in the right direction, and should be signed by Gov. David Ige.
Civil claims could increase deterrence with landlords, as well. In August, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm’s office filed a nuisance abatement claim in civil court against the property owners of an alleged illegal gambling den — a move that hasn’t been tried in Honolulu for more than 40 years. Prosecutors should pursue more of these cases.
The evidence that gambling operations in the islands prop up an underworld and serve as a nexus for dealing guns and drugs cannot be ignored, and Hawaii cannot afford to tolerate this. It’s time for a full-blown campaign of investigation, civil and criminal court action, penalties and appropriate sentencing to root out these threats embedded in our neighborhoods.
