A Hawaii man is behind bars after authorities intercepted a package from Las Vegas that contained a Golden Nugget casino sweater, a pillowcase and 6 pounds of methamphetamine.
Once inside the man's Honolulu apartment, police discovered an additional 14 pounds of meth, $30,000 in cash and a revolver, The Associated Press reports.
Bryant Iwai allegedly told law enforcement agents that it was the third drug parcel he had received from Las Vegas and that he paid $60,000 for the meth, which he planned to sell.
"He related that this is his job since he's unemployed and he would sell all the methamphetamine in small amounts to make a huge profit," the complaint states.
A pound of crystal meth has a Honolulu street value of more than $20,000 ― double the average price in many mainland states.
Authorities reportedly intercepted the meth-filled package last week after a postal inspector in the guise of a mail carrier delivered it to Iwai’s Kaonohi Street apartment building.
Hawaii’s addiction to meth is well-documented. Since being introduced from Asia in the mid-1980s, the drug has burrowed into every community in Hawaii, becoming widely used and readily available. Thirty-seven percent of men jailed in Honolulu tested positive for meth in 2001, higher than any other major U.S. city, CBS News reported. Between 2002 and 2012, 79.3 percent of drug-related crime in Hawaii was related to methamphetamine abuse.
And traffickers have found creative ways to ship the drug to the islands.
In July, federal agents intercepted a package mailed to Hawaii from Southern California containing a toaster oven filled with 6 pounds of crystal meth.
During a May raid, federal agents watched from the street as men threw several pounds of meth from a 15-story building in downtown Honolulu, blanketing the pavement in powder.
Last year and the year before, meth was sent to Hawaii inside mannequin heads.
“If it fits, it ships,” Robin Dinlocker, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Honolulu district, told AP.