Two Kaua’i residents found guilty of selling heroin on the island were sentenced in federal court on O’ahu last month. After cooperating with U.S. government investigators, Brooke Lynn Douglas was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, plus five years
Two Kaua’i residents found guilty of selling heroin on the island were sentenced in federal court on O’ahu last month.
After cooperating with U.S. government investigators, Brooke Lynn Douglas was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, plus five years supervised release after the incarceration, according to Thomas Muehleck, assistant U.S. attorney.
Douglas was released from incarceration last month. She was given credit for time served and good behavior, and had pled guilty to various drug offenses, Muehleck said.
Ross Lindman was sentenced to 21 months incarceration, followed by four years supervised release. He pled guilty to various drug charges, and was ordered into federal custody as of March 19, Muehleck said.
Lindman will also be given credit for time served and good behavior, and the time he’ll have to serve in a federal facility will be determined by the federal bureau of prisons, said Muehleck.
Neither were given fines, because it was determined neither had the assets to pay fines, he continued.
Cooperation from Douglas helped federal investigators get to Pablo Romero, a Mexican national who allegedly supplied the heroin Douglas and Lindman sold on Kaua’i, Muehleck said.
Romero was convicted in February, and will be sentenced in June.
People from California and Maui also came to Kaua’i to distribute heroin, and over periods between December of 1999 and April of 2000 the Maui-based ring was selling a couple of grams a day on Kaua’i, said Muehleck.
Since heroin users routinely purchase quantities as small as a quarter or half a gram, the local dealers may have had 10 or 20 or more customers a day, he said.
The alleged kingpin of the heroin distribution ring, Jorge Salazar-Guillen, based out of Lahaina, Maui, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison last week in U.S. District Court in Honolulu.
Douglas cooperated with the federal government from the day of her arrest, became a government witness, and testified against Romero, the alleged distributor, said Muehleck. Because of her testimony and cooperation, U.S. attorneys asked for sentencing leniency in her case, he added.
She received leniency, said Muehleck.
Muehleck would not speculate whether the amount of heroin being distributed here means the island has a heroin problem, but did speak in general terms.
“Anytime anybody is distributing a controlled substance, there’s a problem. Because it’s in neighborhoods, that’s the problem,” he commented.
The heroin ring led by Salazar-Guillen was once described as the largest on Maui. Drugs came from Mexico through California to Hawai’i.
Douglas and Lindman were among 20 people charged in connection with Salazar-Guillen’s drug organization. All either pleaded guilty to or were found guilty of various drug charges.
Salazar-Guillen was indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2000 along with around 75 others in a large-scale crackdown on illegal drugs on Maui that uncovered two drug rings based in Lahaina.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
