A package of meth pills and suspected anabolic steroids was addressed to a home inside Naval Base Guam, but intercepted by local and federal agents, who on June 27 applied for a federal search warrant based on the discovery by customs officials.
The recently-unsealed application for the search warrant also is the first one unsealed in years that bears the name of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent as the applicant. The DEA has been suspiciously silent on Guam since the latter part of 2018. That timeframe coincides with the opening of a secret investigation by Guam Assistant U.S. Attorney Rosetta San Nicolas in the federal court in Honolulu. The only information that has been unsealed in that investigation are Ms. San Nicolas’ application to the court, and certain applications for wire taps on federal defendant John “Boom” Mantanona. The wire taps are related to drug deals, and to the involvement of Guam law enforcement and political figures in drug trafficking organizations.
And then, silence from the DEA; until this unsealed warrant application.
According to the application, on June 25, Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency officers inspected a package addressed to Dan Henderson and discovered several round blue pills that tested positive for meth, and “multiple glass vials,” of what appeared to be anabolic steroids. The suspected steroids were concealed as essential oils.
The DEA then became involved and replaced the narcotics with “sham,” or non-narcotics that appear to be the drugs. The agent applied for, and the federal court approved an application for a search warrant upon the delivery of the drugs to 21 Dolphin Dr., Santa Rita.
21 Dolphin Drive, Santa Rita, according to a search on Google Maps, is a home in a residential area of Naval Base Guam in Sumay.
“This is necessary in order to ascertain the identity of the individual who is the true intended recipient of the Henderson package,” the agent wrote in the application. According to the application, once the package was delivered and a signal triggered from the opening of the package emits, the DEA would raid the home to find out more about the criminal enterprise.
Based on the amount of drugs in the package, the DEA agent believed, according to his application, that agents will find more methamphetamine, and paraphernalia associated with the trafficking of meth, inside the Naval Base house.
According to court records, there are no sealed federal criminal cases that were filed within a month of the warrant application, indicating no charges were filed against anyone in this case in the U.S. District Court of Guam.
Kandit has asked Joint Region Marianas public affairs officer Lt. Commander Katherine Koenig whether the military took over jurisdiction of the case following the execution of the Henderson warrant, and whether a man named Dan Henderson lived at 21 Dolphin Drive.
About the DEA agent who requested the warrant
Applications for warrants always include the background of the law enforcement officer applying for the warrant in a section normally entitled “Background of Affiant.” The background tells the judge whether the agent is qualified to make searches and understands the rights of citizens and the parameters of the law in making a search. The background information, which is customary, can sometimes provide insight into the workings of the federal agency involved in the investigation for which the search or tracking is needed.
In this case, the agent tells the federal court he joined the DEA in 2019, and in February this year was assigned to the DEA Guam Resident Office, which falls under the DEA Field Office in Los Angeles. That field office also controls the resident office in Stockton, California, which is a city known to law enforcement as a place from which meth is mailed to Guam. The agent was assigned to the Stockton Resident Office from February 2020 until he was moved to Guam in February this year, according to his background statement.
Despite the seeming absence of DEA activity on Guam, the agent wrote in his background: “I have had the opportunity to converse with law enforcement professionals as to drug trafficker methods regarding the manufacture, importation, transportation, distribution and sales of controlled substances, as well as their methods used to conceal, transport, and launder cash and/or other types of drug proceeds. I have received training in various means by which persons involved in these types of criminal activities use telephones, computers, buildings, storage units, residences, vehicles, businesses, and other structures to conceal their activities from law enforcement. I have become familiar with the types and amounts of profits made by drug dealers, the methods, language, and terms that are used.”
