A federal drug defendant arrested on the Big Island for allegedly possessing a large quantity of fentanyl didn’t appear in court Thursday as scheduled.
According to court records, 33-year-old Shane Taylor Bono of Centralia, Wash., requested not to be transported from the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu to court “due to his personal health reasons.”
Bono was arrested by Hawaii County police on Dec. 28 and was booked at the Hilo police station on suspicion of seven counts of promoting a dangerous drug, plus promoting a controlled substance near a school or park and driving with a suspended license.
The feds took over the case, however, and the state didn’t charge Bono.
Bono was charged by the feds with a single count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, which upon conviction is a mandatory five-year minimum prison sentence with a maximum sentence of 40 years.
According to the federal complaint, a search warrant for a silver Kia driven by Bono — who was being pulled over in a traffic stop by East Hawaii Traffic Enforcement Officer Jerome Duarte — turned up 2,550 blue pills with an M-30 imprint. The pills later tested positive for fentanyl disguised as oxycodone.
Also confiscated were approximately 4 grams of methamphetamine and two cellphones.
In addition, Bono was carrying $4,590 in cash, which was seized, according to the document.
The complaint doesn’t specify where the traffic stop occurred, but alleged Duarte noticed Bono and another man sitting in the Kia in a parking lot “engaging in behavior that … amounted to a possible narcotics transaction.”
The document also states the man in the passenger seat got out of the Kia and into another vehicle.
Bono allegedly followed the other vehicle out of the parking lot and onto a street without using his turn signal, and Duarte pulled him over after observing that Bono wasn’t using his seat belt.
The other driver left the scene and, according to Capt. Rio Amon-Wilkins of the Criminal Investigation Division, hasn’t been apprehended.
Amon-Wilkins declined to specify where the alleged drug transaction and traffic stop occurred, saying their case remained “an open investigation” with a suspect at large.
According to the complaint, Bono told police he flew from Seattle to Kailua-Kona on Dec. 23 and “acquired approximately 4,000 fentanyl tablets once he arrived. Bono allegedly told officers he provided the fentanyl 500 pills at a time to a customer and sub-distributor referred to as “Person A” in the complaint.
Bono also allegedly admitted he knew the pills were fentanyl and that he “is a heavy user of the drug.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter rescheduled Bono’s hearing about a government motion to detain him without bail for 10:30 Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield.
Mansfield also is scheduled to preside over a preliminary hearing for Bono at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 17.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.