Members of the Drug Enforcement Task Force and the Department of Public Safety\u2019s Criminal Investigation Bureau used a confidential source to buy a total of $200 worth of crystal methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d from Rep. Raymond D. Palacios in two transactions, according to police reports.<\/p>\n
This developed as Palacios, who was arrested on Friday for alleged \u201cice\u201d trafficking, was taken to the Superior Court yesterday for his initial appearance or bail hearing. <\/p>\n
His bail was initially set at $60,000 cash but Associate Judge Perry B. Inos later reduced it to 10 percent of $30,000 cash after determining that the lawmaker is not a flight risk.<\/p>\n
Inos also notified Palacios about an outstanding bench warrant for his arrest issued by the Superior Court on May 5, 2011, for his failure to appear at a hearing in a civil case filed against him by Bank of Saipan. The court imposed a $500 cash bail in the bench warrant. It was not clear why the bench warrant was not served on Palacios when it was issued in May.<\/p>\n
In the civil case, Inos released Palacios on his own recognizance and set the hearing for Dec. 1, 2011, before Associate Judge David Wiseman. <\/p>\n
Attorney Michael White, who was in court yesterday, told reporters that the civil case filed by Bank of Saipan has been consolidated with a PTI civil case against the lawmaker. <\/p>\n
White said there was a court judgment ordering Palacios to make payment for more than $6,000 but on May 5, 2011 the representative did not show up in court.<\/p>\n
As part of the bail conditions in the \u201cice\u201d case, Inos ordered Palacios not to leave Saipan, to stay away from all ports, and to obey all laws.<\/p>\n
Preliminary hearing will be on Nov. 8 at 1:30pm and the arraignment, Nov. 14 at 9am.<\/p>\n
At the start of the hearing, Palacios told the court he could not afford to hire a lawyer but Inos later determined that the lawmaker is not eligible for a court-appointed counsel. Chief public defender Adam Hardwicke represented Palacios for the bail hearing. Assistant attorney general Nicole Driscoll appeared for the government.<\/p>\n
The 48-year-old Palacios was smiling when he emerged from the courtroom after the hearing.<\/p>\n
When asked for comments about the charges, Palacios merely said: \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police detective Steven Castro stated in his report that he and another detective met with a cooperating source on Sept. 5, 2011, to talk about a congressman who sells \u201cice.\u201d The cooperating source allegedly bought \u201cice\u201d from Palacios sometime in August 2011.<\/p>\n
Palacios allegedly told the cooperating source to just call him on his cellular phone if he\/she wants to buy more \u201cice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castro said that, on Oct. 19, 2011, during a controlled buy-walk operation, the cooperating source managed to buy $100 worth of \u201cice\u201d from Palacios at the parking lot of a bank at Afetna Square Building in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
That same day, Castro said, the same cooperating source was able to buy $100 more worth of \u201cice\u201d from Palacios.<\/p>\n
Detectives determined that the substance sold by Palacios in both transactions tested presumptive positive for crystal methamphetamine or \u201cice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castro said that during the first controlled buy-walk operation, a surveillance team saw Palacios\u2019 vehicle exiting from the house of a known drug dealer, Cunyan Ma, in Chalan Kanoa. Palacios then headed to San Antonio where the drug deal occurred in the parking lot. <\/p>\n
At the end of the second buy-walk operation, Castro said surveillance team closely followed and monitored Palacios as he headed to Ma\u2019s house in Chalan Kanoa.<\/p>\n
Castro said that Ma was arrested on April 21, 2011, for illegal possession of a controlled substance and trafficking of a controlled substance.<\/p>\n
The detective said that Ma, the girlfriend of convicted \u201cice\u201d trafficker Ignacio Leon Guerrero, is the caretaker of Leon Guerrero\u2019s house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of the Drug Enforcement Task Force and the Department of Public Safety\u2019s Criminal Investigation Bureau used a confidential source to buy a total of $200 worth of crystal methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d from Rep. Raymond D. Palacios in two transactions, according to police reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}