Federal prosecutors want a 50-year-old Maui man held without bail after he allegedly smuggled pounds of methamphetamine between Oahu and Maui using Mokulele Airlines.
Frank William Keliihanui Kane Jr. of Lahaina was charged Monday by federal criminal complaint with
possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, being a felon in possession of a firearms and ammunition, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Since March, agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations and officers with the Maui Police Department have been investigating Kane for the
“distribution of crystal methamphetamine” on Maui, according to a complaint filed Monday.
“Multiple sources of information provided intelligence” that Kane smuggled “pound quantities” of crystal methamphetamine from Oahu to Maui on Mokulele flights, according to an affidavit authored by a DEA agent.
Kane is scheduled for a detention hearing today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aislinn K. Affinito is prosecuting the case.
On May 9, federal agents secured a search warrant to use global positioning system technology to track Kane’s mobile phone.
On May 16, federal agents tracked Kane’s movements from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport until he arrived at Kahului Airport.
Kane was watched by law enforcement as a friend picked him at the curb and took him home.
Kane was later seen picked up by a brown Toyota Tacoma and driven to a park in Kahului. There Kane got out and met a man on a bicycle, and an exchange took place, according to court documents.
Kane was later seen driving his white Tacoma to a gym to lift weights. When he left the gym, he was pulled over on Honoapiilani Highway near Kapoli Street in Wailuku.
Kane was ordered to get out of the car and told that he was the subject of an “ongoing narcotics investigation.”
Kane then signed two MPD forms waiving his right to an attorney and allowing police and federal agents to search his person, vehicle, bags within the vehicle, digital devices and home.
Before the searches, Kane allegedly admitted that he had a camouflage duffel bag in the truck that contained several ounces of cocaine, two “ghost” guns and
ammunition.
He also told law enforcement officers that there was a black duffel bag in the truck that contained a pound of crystal methamphetamine.
Police and federal agents seized the two bags and found a little more than a pound of methamphetamine, 171.78 grams of cocaine and a digital scale.
A 9mm ghost gun handgun with two loaded magazines and a ghost gun rifle with two magazines and
100 rounds of ammunition were also found.
In March 2021, Kane was awaiting trial for habitually operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant when he was arrested again for habitual impaired driving and was ordered by a judge not to drive and to wear a device to continuously monitor alcohol in his system, according to The Maui News.
Kane has convictions in 2007, 2011 and 2021 for habitual operating a vehicle under the influence of an
intoxicant and was sentenced to over one year of imprisonment.
He has a lifetime revocation of his driver’s license.
He has three prior felony convictions and 33 prior convictions in state court dating back to 1997. They
include five misdemeanor convictions for cruelty to animals.
