Melvin John Salas Naputi is losing $204,104 in cash, a Harry Winston watch, four expensive vehicles, a firearm, numerous electronics, and quite possible his freedom after pleading guilty to drug and gun charges in the U.S. District Court of Guam.
Had he not signed his plea agreement, unsealed Thursday, he faced a $20 million fine, and a prison sentence that would encompass the rest of his natural life, if he was convicted by a jury.
According to the Trial Brief filed by the U.S. Attorney on Monday, Mr. Naputi’s wife told federal law enforcement that Mr. Naputi’s drug proceeds were used to renovate her home in Yigo. Two days later, Mr. Naputi plead guilty to the charges. That home and its improvements are listed in the plea agreement, as well, though the home is not currently the subject of forfeiture.
Mr. Naputi previously had pleaded guilty and served a federal prison sentence in 2011 for drugs and firearms charges.
According to the plea agreement, federal Marshals executed an arrest warrant on Mr. Naputi on August 8, 2018 at Room #400 Oceanview Residence Hotel in Tumon, where he was with his girlfriend. The plea agreement only identifies his girlfriend by her initials, M.C. The plea agreement states drugs were in plain sight, Mr. Naputi admitted to there being more drugs and a firearm in the room, and M.C. told federal law enforcement that Mr. Naputi stored drugs in her purse. Authorities found the firearm, more than $7000 in cash, meth, and cocaine.
On a search of a cellular phone, “law enforcement located text messages from T.P. and B.A. arranging for the purchase of methamphetamine from Naputi.”
The plea agreement does not state anything further about the 2018 incident, but jumps to an April 4, 2021 interception of a drug package by U.S. Postal Inspection Services. The package contained 926 net grams of meth, 100 percent pure.
The packaged was addressed to “Tina Lay” and was delivered to a mailbox, “where it was picked up by a male riding a motorcycle. [Homeland Security Investigations] tracked the Tina Lay package, eventually following a male who drove a 2012 Gray Dodge Charger to K.F.’s residence located at 129B Dairy Road, Mangilao. The package was then breached. As HSI and USPIS Postal Agents entered the home, a male identified to be Melvin John Salas Naputi climbed out a window and ran away leaving behind his black backpack, cell phones, the Tina Lay package, and the parked 2012 Dodge Charger.”
K.F. consented to the search of the residence, according to the plea agreement. Authorities found nearly $100,000 in cash, 821 net grams of meth, and drug paraphernalia.
“The contents of Naputi’s phone were extracted revealing drug conversations,” the plea agreement states.
No other information about those contents is published in the plea agreement.
You may read the full plea agreement below:
