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Court revokes release of an alleged drug peddler
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Posted on Jul 15 2005
The Superior Court has revoked the release of a suspected drug peddler who had volunteered to become a confidential police informant.
Associate Judge Kenneth Govendo set bail for 40-year-old Raymond DeLeon Guerrero King at $30,000. The judge imposed a daily curfew from 7pm to 6am as a condition of the bail.
King faces charges of possession and trafficking of methamphetamine hydrochloride or ‘ice.”
Govendo set a preliminary hearing on the case on July 19 and appointed the Public Defender’s Office to represent King.
The judge granted the request of CNMI chief prosecutor Jeffrey Moots in revoking King’s release.
“Defendant has not cooperated with law enforcement in ongoing investigations, including but not limited to providing substantial assistance and accurate information to law enforcement officials, this being a condition after the defendant’s release,” Moots said.
Operatives from the CNMI-Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force and the Department of Public Safety’s Drug Enforcement Task Force had arrested King on March 30 following the issuance of an arrest warrant by Govendo.
In an affidavit submitted to the court, detective Elias Quitugua Saralu of the DPS Special Operations Bureau disclosed that King was arrested in As Perdido after a month-long surveillance.
Govendo had issued an eavesdropping search warrant to allow operatives to wiretap King’s telephone conversation related to alleged drug peddling.
Saralu said operatives conducted a controlled and monitored purchase of ice from King, and their cooperating source received from him two zip-lock bags containing straws of ice on two occasions. He said the source used marked money in buying ice from King.
King agreed to cooperate with law enforcers as a confidential informant in exchange for his release, before he was placed under custody again earlier this week for failing to abide by the agreement.
