A woman accused of running a methamphetamine distribution ring between Honolulu and Guam with her son and husband was ordered held without bail Tuesday while her supervised release in a separate criminal case was revoked.
Prior to her arrest in the current case last month, Elsie Thammavongsa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 5 grams or more of methamphetamine, trafficking, and possession of a firearm, according to federal court documents.
She was not in custody and was facing up to 40 years in prison and a maximum fine of $5 million on the conspiracy charge and up to life in prison and a maximum fine
of $250,000 on the firearm
violation when federal agents arrested and charged her
and her son Abel Thammavongsa, 21, with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Elsie’s husband, Rot
Thammavongsa, is charged with possession of methamphetamine.
Elsie Thammavongsa’s attorney, Cynthia Ann Kagiwada, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom Trader in court Tuesday that her client requires medical attention for a heart condition and was recently in COVID-19 quarantine at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu.
“She relapsed and started using methamphetamine again (prior to her recent arrest),” Kagiwada said. “She’s trying to be honest with the court and the government.”
Trader revoked Elsie Thammavongsa’s release in the federal drug case where she was pending sentencing. He also ordered her held without bail until her trial
on the new charges Nov. 28 at 9 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Jill Otake.
Kagiwada entered a not guilty plea to those charges on Thammavongsa’s behalf.
On Sept. 20, agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration executed search warrants at Elsie and Rot’s apartment at 410 Magellan Ave. and at Abel Thammavongsa’s apartment at 5210 Likini St.
Abel Thammavongsa told investigators during the search that his mother would use his address to receive drug money mailed to her from Guam. He later said people from Guam would wire money to his bank accounts and that his mother made him withdraw the money and give it to her.
Acting on a tip earlier this month, DEA agents learned that an person was going to mail 20 pounds of methamphetamine to Guam on the morning of Sept. 7.
On that day, investigators set up surveillance near the post office at Ala Moana Center and approached a person in a car who told them there were 4 pounds of methamphetamine inside the vehicle. Investigators recovered a wrapped box inscribed with the words “Happy Birthday” and other “celebratory script,” according to court documents.
Agents arrested the driver of the car, who later became a confidential informant, and said he got the methamphetamine from Elsie and Rot Thammavongsa.
The informant told agents that the informant already had mailed several other methamphetamine shipments to Guam for Elsie Thammavongsa.
On Sept. 12, authorities on Guam conducted a review of USPS business records and identified a suspicious package addressed to Abel Thammavongsa’s apartment. A search of the parcel turned up an “undetermined amount of U.S. currency” enclosed in three separate vacuum-sealed bags, heavily wrapped in plastic wrapping and concealed inside a rice cooker, according to court documents.
Investigators rewrapped and repackaged the parcel and arranged for it to be delivered to the apartment on Likini Street.
Abel Thammavongsa told agents that about a week before they searched the apartments, he had seen his mother open a package at his apartment that had been previously intercepted by U.S. postal inspectors and examined. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service had flagged a package from Barrigada, Guam, that was addressed to Elsie Thammavongsa at the
Likini Street address.
Abel Thammavongsa told the DEA he saw the money inside the package, packed inside a rice cooker.
