The year-end arrests of two Big Island men on federal charges for importing and selling illegal fireworks may be the tip of an investigative iceberg, or simply an easier case to make than one targeting similar shipments to the far larger underground marketplace here in Honolulu. I want to believe the former, but it’s not clear whether that would be a good bet.

According to a news release from the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Hawaii:

HONOLULU – United States Attorney Ken Sorenson announced that Darrel Goo, 52, of Keaau, Hawaii, and Cy Tamura, 45, of Hilo, Hawaii, were arrested and charged by criminal complaint yesterday with multiple fireworks-related criminal offenses, including transporting fireworks into Hawaii; engaging in the business of transporting, distributing, and storing explosive materials; and shipping, transporting, receiving, and possessing any explosive in and affecting interstate commerce. Goo was also charged with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.

According to court documents, from in or around May 2016 through August 2025, Goo and Tamura conspired to engage in the business of transporting, storing, and distributing illegal fireworks in and around the Island of Hawaii. Goo used a fictitious name and Alaska addresses to conceal his annual fireworks purchases sourced from a fireworks company on the U.S. mainland. He also paid for the fireworks in batches of money orders and cash. Tamura arranged the shipping logistics from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii by falsely claiming that the fireworks shipments contained horticultural materials.

The arrests are the result of a multi-agency investigation involving the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office, Special Investigation and Prosecution Division, and the Hawaii Department of Law Enforcement, according to the news release.

I couldn’t help but note that the Honolulul and Big Island police departments are not listed among those cooperating in the investigation, although joint local-federal investigative task forces are common.

The charges were brought via a “criminal complaint” rather than a federal grand jury indictment. This typically signals that the defendants are cooperating, so that prosecutors did not have to seek an indictment. In addition, the government did not seek to detain either defendant, and they were both released on unsecured $50,000 bonds without opposition by prosecutors.

The affidavit of an IRS criminal investigator filed in support of the criminal charges provides further details of the case. There’s some interesting stuff here.

The government alleges Goo and Tamura bought fireworks from a Wisconsin company, and companies in Kentucky and Indiana that sold “overloads,” referring to “fireworks that appear to be consumer grade fireworks, but in truth and fact are packed with more explosive material….”

The pair would fly Wisconsin to make the purchases and have the fireworks loaded into containers for shipping. The fireworks company and/or its employees facilitated the illegal shipping to Hawaii by helping to disguise the loads, using top soil or hay to cover the pallets and fireworks wrapped in black plastic. However, no charges appear to have been filed against others who facilitated the illegal shipments.

“The contents were falsely declared by the shipper as ‘Perlite, Horticultural’, ‘Horticultural Supplies including Perlite/Potting Soil’, ‘Bailed Horse Hay & Potting Mix’, ‘Horse Hay/Potting Mix’, and ‘Bailed Hay'”, according to the affidavit. “On certain trips, they would rent a truck and pick up the overloads in Kentucky, then drive them back to Wisconsin to be packed and shipped to Hawaii.”

Their annual bulk fireworks purchases in Wisconsin ranged up to $131,000, while another $80,000 was “typically” spent on overloads, the affidavit alleges.

During early years of this fireworks conspiracy, payment was made using multiple money orders in amounts of $500 and $1,000.

“The money orders were purchased at multiple locations on the Island of Hawaii and were purchased by multiple individuals, including Tamura, in small increments to avoid detection,” the affidavit states. Purchases were made using a false name (“John Branco”) using fictitious Alaska addresses.

For example, in or around May 2020, GOO placed a fireworks order under Branco for 588 cases of aerial-type fireworks including mortar tubes, multi-shot aerial cakes, rockets, and roman candles. The Fireworks Company invoice total was $51,805.96 and included handwritten notes that stated, “50,000 Money Orders” and an Alaska customer address. The Fireworks Company deposited 50 money orders in $1,000 denominations provided by GOO into its bank account. The money orders were purchased from various Post Office locations in Hawaii County between on or about March 19, 2020, and April 24, 2020.

Hawaii Island had 25 post offices in 2020, according to the State Data Book.

According to the affidavit, investigators had Goo and Tamura under surveillance earlier this year when they traveled to the fireworks company’s warehouse in Prescott, Wisconsin. In July 2025, investigators executed a search warrant and seized approximately 18 pallets of boxes containing aerial fireworks, and another 18 pallets believed to be “overloads” trucked from Kentucky/Indiana. The fireworks were removed for testing and held as evidence, replaced with bags of concrete mix, and the two containers were sent on their way, trucked to the port in Long Beach, California, and then shipped by barge to Honolulu.

The only information about the distribution network on the Big Island is contained in a footnote.

During an interview with law enforcement on August 13, 2025, GOO stated that his fireworks sales season ran from October through December. GOO had a network of people who helped him sell fireworks and were paid between $20 and $50 per piece sold. GOO passed out inventory lists on paper and text. Customers texted GOO what they wanted, and GOO would deliver the fireworks to them. GOO used burner cellphones to communicate with his distributors and customers.

The full criminal complaint and affidavit were filed under seal in Federal District Court in Honolulu on December 26, and unsealed after Goo and Tamura were arrested.

Two of Mike Miske’s co-defendants who received among the longest prison sentences have now appealed their extended terms to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Both appeals had been delayed by the long government shutdown in October, and are only now proceeding.

Attorneys representing Norman Akau, sentenced to a 14-year term, and John Stancil, sentenced to the maximum 20 years for racketeering conspiracy, filed opening briefs last week. The filings spelling out what the attorneys say were reversible errors made during sentencing by Federal Judge Derrick Watson, who presided over the racketeering cases against Miske and his criminal associates.

Both appeals are seeking to vacate the original sentences on technical grounds, and are then asking for the cases to be assigned to a different district court judge for resentencing.

The government’s answering briefs in response to the appeals are due within 30-days.

A third co-defendant, Lance Bermudez, filed a notice of appeal of his 30-year sentence, the harshest of any of the Miske-associated defendants. However, his court-appointed attorney withdrew from the case after he refused to communicate with her.

California attorney DeAnna S. Dotson had been appointed in August to handle Bermudez’ appeal. Although she was able to speak with her client once after her appointment, he refused to accept a letter explaining her appointment, which was returned to her marked ‘Inmate refused to Legal Mail,’ and subsequently refused to talk to her on the phone, according to Dotson’s declaration filed in court. In her declaration, Dotson also said she had reviewed the case and found no grounds for an appeal.

Although another San Francisco-based attorney was assigned to the case on December 2, it remains unclear whether Bermudez will cooperate sufficiently for any appeal to go forward.

In their plea agreements with the government, all three men waived most of their rights to appeal either their convictions or sentences. Their plea agreements both contained the following provisions:

The defendant knowingly and voluntarily waives the right to appeal, except as indicated in subparagraph “b” below, his convictions and any sentence within the Guidelines range as determined by the Court at the time of sentencing, and any lawful restitution order imposed, or the manner in which the sentence or restitution order was determined, on any ground whatsoever, in exchange for the concessions made by the prosecution in this Agreement. The defendant understands that this waiver includes the right to assert any and all legally waivable claims.

The exception reads: “b. If the Court imposes a sentence greater than specified in the guideline range determined by the Court to be applicable to the defendant, the defendant retains the right to appeal the portion of his sentence greater than specified in that guideline range and the manner in which that portion was determined and to challenge that portion of his sentence in a collateral attack.”

I believe their sentences were within range in the sentencing guidelines, but the appeals raise questions about whether the guidelines were applied properly.

The 9th Circuit will have to determine whether the appeals as filed fall within the exception to the standard waiver. However, appeals of this kind generally have a relatively low success rate in federal criminal cases.

Akau

At the time of his arrest and detention in 2020, Akau was serving his third term on the executive board of Local 665 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents workers in the film and stage productions.

He had been permitted to run for election to the board while still on probation after being convicted and sentenced to prison for shooting a taxi driver in a botched robbery while still a teenager, despite a federal law barring felons from union office for a period of 13-years after release from custody.

While in prison, Akau had become a member of the USO prison gang and took part in assaults carried out by the gang. Later, during trial testimony, Akau said he had continued to carry out assaults for USO after being released from prison.

Tucson-based attorney Ramiro Salazar Flores filed a 50-page appeal on behalf of Norman Akau on Monday, December 22. He argues that the government breached the terms of Akau’s plea agreement with prosecutors by including Akau’s participation in the murder-for-hire plot targeting a former ILWU official in setting the range of appropriate sentences under federal sentencing guidelines. Akau had disclosed the murder plot as part of his plea agreement, and had been repeatedly assured during plea negotiations that his disclosure would not be used against him in sentencing. Allowing it to enter into calculating the appropriate sentence was a reversible error, according to Flores’ brief.

Stancil

The opening brief in the appeal on behalf of John Blaine Stancil, younger half-brother of the late racketeering boss, Michael J. Miske, Jr., was filed on Christmas Eve by Boise-based attorney W. Miles Pope.

The appeal argues that Judge Watson made a clear error during sentencing by refusing to consider Stancil to have had only a “minor” or “minimal” role in the murder-for-hire plot against Joe Boy Tavares, a Waimanalo man Miske suspected of providing information against him to investigators and therefore wanted to have killed. Federal guidelines provide for lower sentences when such a “mitigating-role adjustment” is appropriate.

In addition, Pope argues that Judge Watson failed to explain why he had not allowed some reduction in the sentencing guideline in light of Stancil’s clean disciplinary record during the 4-1/2 years he had spend in federal detention prior to sentencing. Failure to adequately explain sentencing decisions can be considered a reversible error, according to cases cited in the appeal.

Stancil entered into a last-minute plea deal with prosecutors early on the morning the federal racketeering trial was to begin, leaving Miske to face the jury alone.

Stancil pleaded guilty to a single charge of racketeering conspiracy, but also admitted his role in the Joe Boy Tavares murder plot, aiding in the release of the chemical chloropicrin inside two nightclubs that competed with Miske’s M Nightclub and its successor, Encore, as well as a string of violent assaults.