U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has found probable cause to charge Yuliu Liu and Zhenlin Fang with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance over the seizure of over 10,700 grams of methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d worth about $3.2 million to $4.3 million.<\/p>\n
At a preliminary hearing on Friday, Manglona also granted the request of the defendants\u2019 lawyer for more time, resetting the detention hearing for Aug. 14 at 9am.<\/p>\n
Liu, 36, and Fang, 24, were remanded into the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service after the hearing.<\/p>\n
Manglona said the evidence presented indicates that Customs inspectors detected that an air-compressor from a shipment contained about over 23 lbs or 10 kilograms of methamphetamine.<\/p>\n
Manglona said the evidence presented showed that Li and Fang went to the Sunleader warehouse to retrieve the air-compressor.<\/p>\n
Although the shipping documents indicate that the air-compressor was consigned to neither of the two suspects, that individual apparently does not even exist or was not investigated, she said.<\/p>\n
Manglona noted that Fang has no job but was found driving a Lexus car and was in possession of a receipt for the purchase of Ziploc bags.<\/p>\n
Manglona said that authorities subsequently found 130 grams of \u201cice\u201d at Liu\u2019s house in Chalan Piao.<\/p>\n
At the hearing, Assistant U.S. attorney Garth Backe called to the witness stand Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force officer Raymond Renguul and Department of Homeland Security- Homeland Security Investigations special agent Mike Lansangan.<\/p>\n
Renguul basically testified how a Customs inspector detected the \u201cice\u201d in an air compressor in a container from Guangzhou, China, at the seaport warehouse last July 17 that led federal and local authorities to make a follow-up investigation that led to the arrest of the two suspects last July 22.<\/p>\n
Renguul said they replaced the \u201cice\u201d with sugar in the air-compressor during their surveillance operation.<\/p>\n
Renguul said about 15 officers, all with drawn guns, stopped the defendants\u2019 Nissan Quest van and arrested them.<\/p>\n
With a street value of $300 to $400 a gram, the 10,747 grams of \u201cice\u201d involved were worth $3,224,100 to $4,298,800, Saipan Tribune learned.<\/p>\n
Lansangan said it was he who checked the identity of the defendants and their immigration status.<\/p>\n
Lansangan said Fang entered Saipan on conditional parole on March 22, 2013, and that he is already subject for removal.<\/p>\n
Liu, meanwhile, entered Saipan on conditional parole on June 25, 2014, and was interviewed by Homeland Security in October 2014 as he was already out of status, Lansangan said.<\/p>\n
He said that during the expedited proceedings last Oct. 21, Liu was ordered to return the following day but he failed to do so. Lansangan said Liu is now classified as a fugitive from immigration.<\/p>\n
Attorney Steven Pixley, court-appointed counsel for Fang, argued that Fang\u2019s name was not in the shipment\u2019s documents and that no drugs were found in the search of his house in Upper Navy Hill.<\/p>\n
Attorney Benjamin Petersburg, court-appointed counsel for Liu, also argue that his client\u2019s name was not in the shipment\u2019s documents and that he was not aware of what was inside the air-compressor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has found probable cause…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6337,3936,6338,6339],"class_list":["post-207062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-attorney-steven-pixley","tag-garth-backe","tag-mike-lansangan","tag-nissan-quest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207062","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}