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Leader of Hawaii meth ring avoids major jail time

The leader of a drug trafficking ring charged in what’s been described as Hawaii’s largest crystal meth case is avoiding a mandatory 20-year minimum sentence because he testified at trials against his co-defendants.

U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi noted at John Tai’s sentencing today that he was assaulted in prison and his sister-in-law was shot because of his cooperation. Taking his “substantial cooperation” into account, Kobayashi sentenced him to about eight years in prison. He’s already served about five years.

Defense attorney Alan Baum says Tai and his family continue to fear retaliation.

The case involved 19 defendants, many of them Tai’s family members. They trafficked millions of dollars’ worth of meth to Hawaii.

Prosecutors credit Tai’s cooperation in obtaining convictions against the ring’s supplier and others.

16 responses to “Leader of Hawaii meth ring avoids major jail time”

  1. Kaaihue4Mayor says:

    Meth heroin opiates all the same. Stay drug free. #JustSayNo

  2. cojef says:

    Attempting to save his own skin willing to sell out his cohorts. Nice guy? Probably used the stuff and had his brains fried?

  3. inverse says:

    Time for him and the sister in-law to leave Hawaii and assume new identities someplace else on the mainland. Given that he turned on his own family members, he and the sister in-law needs to cut ties with his family members forever.

  4. den says:

    I’m sure he’s in the witness protection program.

  5. Jonathan_Patrick says:

    So does he have only three more years to serve? The headline is again misleading, as not having followed this story, I thought that out of the mandatory 20 years, he was getting nothing.

    • plaba says:

      Bra, read for comprehension. He avoided a 20-year mandatory sentence by turning government witness. He got 8 years, 5 of which had been served.

      The headline is not misleading.

  6. fiveo says:

    Its too bad that the main guy gets a break for ratting out the others. Not a very stand-p thing to do but to be expected as they say, there is no honor among thieves.

  7. Racoon says:

    He will get found and punished. FBI is full of cocky unprofessional people who can’t shut up. They can be corruptible just like John Connoly from the Whitey Bulger case. See BLACK MASS movie now at Redbox dispensers everywhere.

  8. residenttaxpayer says:

    I guess it pays to be a rat and turn on others to save one’s worthless hide but when the going was good he enjoyed the fortunes of his ill gotten gains….selling his poison and destroying lives…..one day his co-defendants will catch up with him……

    • aomohoa says:

      Hopefully, karma will get them both.

    • Crackers says:

      Funny A rat rats on the other rats and doesn’t give a rat’s orifice though it took some courage to testify given his relative was harmed in the process. Have to hope that 19 people in all paid a dear price in penalties and jail time because arguably hundreds of other lives were affected by this drug ring.

  9. Crackers says:

    The story is amazing: drug trafficking/distribution, betrayal, extortion, terroristic threatening, narking, selling out, plea bargain, nepotism, millions of dollars, lives ruined. I hope that all 19 of them spend a lot of time in jail, and make it impossible for them to wipe their records clean. Make them examples of what not to do. Illegal drugs: Just Say No!

  10. hokuahi says:

    Gee… And some guy in South Korea gets 15 years of hard labor for tearing down a banner and blaming it on his church… The disparity of it all.

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