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A man accused of being part of a California-to-Hawaii island fentanyl marketing operation that sold the drug for $400 a gram had his detention hearing delayed Tuesday after he tested positive for COVID-19.
After he was arrested, John Ioane Haa allegedly admitted that he was expecting a package with 40 grams of fentanyl and that he sold the powder for $400 a gram, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Monday.
His initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter was rescheduled to Monday and will be conducted remotely from the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu, where Haa is currently quarantining for five days.
Haa is charged with a single count of attempted possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl.
He allegedly admitted to police after his arrest that he had received about 10 packages in the mail containing fentanyl and that he knew the envelope that was delivered to his mailbox Saturday contained fentanyl. He also allegedly said the Priority Mail parcel he was expecting to receive earlier in the week was supposed to contain 40 grams of fentanyl that retailed for $16,000.
Since 2022 the Hawaii Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have been investigating shipments of fentanyl via the U.S. mail from Southern California to Hawaii island.
On March 1 postal inspector Brian W. Shaughnessy executed a federal search warrant on a flat-rate parcel sent to a home on Auwae Road in Hilo. The parcel weighed about 4.4 ounces and was mailed from Cypress, Calif., according to federal court records, and contained 57.1 grams of a gray powder believed to be fentanyl, according to federal court documents.
USPS records indicate more than 30 parcels or envelopes have been mailed to the address on Auwae Road from Southern California since July.
On Thursday, Shaughnessy executed a federal search warrant on another envelope mailed Feb. 28 from Los Angeles to a fictitious name at the same Auwae Road address. The envelope allegedly contained about 11.8 grams of a gray powder that field-tested positive for fentanyl.
On Saturday a controlled delivery of fake powder in a similar package with a device that would alert law enforcement when it was opened was delivered to the home on Auwae Road. Once federal agents and Hawaii police searched the home after the package was opened, they stopped three men leaving, including Haa.
“Case investigators
immediately exposed Haa’s hands to ultraviolet light and observed the presence of ‘Sirchie’ powder on his hands, indicating Haa either opened the envelope or at minimum handled the inner-most packaging containing the pseudo-fentanyl,” according to the complaint.
While searching the first-floor bathroom of the home that Haa allegedly admitted living in, officers observed ashes on the lid of the toilet and pieces of flat rate envelope inside the toilet.
The bathroom also “smelled of burned paper,” leading investigators to
suspect that the pseudo-
fentanyl was flushed down the toilet.
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