A 41-year-old Kauai woman who was a backup supplier of methamphetamine to former Kauai County Council member Arthur Brun’s drug-trafficking organization was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison Thursday.
Phrystal Puanani Bacio, 41, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson, who also ordered her to serve three years of supervised release after she gets out of federal prison.
Brun was sentenced by Watson in May 2022 to 20 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole on 10 charges relating to his role as head of a drug distribution operation.
As part of her sentence, Bacio is required to complete a 500-hour residential drug and substance abuse treatment program.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Micah W.J. Smith, who handled the case, declined to comment on the sentence.
Bacio’s attorney, Neal J. Kugiya, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that she “received a fair sentence given the applicable sentencing guideline range, her role with regard to Arthur Brun, and what the other defendants received in terms of their sentences.”
“Phrystal worked really hard on her personal issues and I applaud her strong efforts,” Kugiya said.
Bacio was the last member of Brun’s organization to be sentenced. Under a 2021 plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, she pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy with intent to distribute and possess 50 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing detectable amounts of methamphetamine.
Starting in 2019 and continuing until the start of 2020, “Bacio occasionally distributed methamphetamine to Brun,” who at the time was running a drug- trafficking organization while serving as a Kauai County Council member,” according to a DOJ sentencing memorandum filed June 20.
Bacio sold Brun at least an ounce of methamphetamine on eight occasions and twice sold him a half-pound of methamphetamine for $1,200 an ounce, the memo said. Bacio was not Brun’s sole supplier of the illicit substance, and he only reached out to her when his primary suppliers were out of stock.
After Brun’s drug ring attracted the attention of law enforcement, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives worked with the Kauai Police Department and other federal agencies to investigate complaints about drug-trafficking organizations on Kauai.
According to the sentencing memo, the investigation required multiple wiretaps on mobile phones controlled by Brun, who was first elected to office in 2016. Bacio was “intercepted in certain calls discussing drug trafficking activities with Brun,” the memo said.
On Feb. 27, 2020, she was arrested, and federal agents and Kauai police conducted a search of her vehicle, recovering six plastic bags filled with 67.1 grams of methamphetamine.
Brun and 11 others were arrested in 2020.
