A 46-year-old felon with 16 prior state convictions is facing a federal criminal charge after he was cited for smoking a cigarette and allegedly found in possession of a ghost gun, fentanyl and cocaine in Chinatown.
Federal prosecutors filed a motion to have Derrick Anthony Wendell Perreira held without bail until trial because the U.S. Department of Justice believes he can’t be trusted to appear for his court dates and is a danger to the community. He made his initial appearance Friday and is scheduled for a detention hearing today. He is charged with one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition.
Perreira was smoking a cigarette on Aug. 25 near College Walk and North Kukui Street in Honolulu.
At the entrance to College Walk on North Beretania Street and on the Aala Street entrance to Kalikimaka Park, there is clear signage that reads, “Smoking Prohibited by Law,” according to an affidavit authored by an FBI agent.
Honolulu Police Department officers saw Perreira smoking and allegedly holding a medium-sized “plastic baggie containing a whitish powdery substance.”
After HPD officers told him that he was under arrest, Perreira allegedly dropped “two medium sized baggies containing a white powdery substance and rocks” to the ground. The two baggies were tested by the HPD laboratory. One had about 2.6805 grams and the other had roughly 3.5184 grams of fentanyl.
Cocaine retails for between $15,500 to $28,000 a kilogram and fentanyl sells for between $9,500 and $13,000 a kilogram in Hawaii, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
An HPD officer searched Perreira, but he was wearing “multiple layers of clothing,” and the officer did not find any weapons or drugs on him.
While the HPD officer drove Perreira to be booked into custody, the officer “heard a thud coming from the rear passenger area where Perreira was seated,” according to a federal criminal complaint filed Sept. 4.
The officer looked in his rearview mirror and saw Perreira bending down toward the floorboard.
The HPD officer immediately pulled over and saw Perreira’s “hands positions behind his mid-thigh area with his jacket pulled down to his wrists, covering his handcuffs and his hands.”
The officer did not notice anything on the floorboard that could have caused the sound and told Perreira to move his feet away from the floorboard so he could see. After finding nothing, the officer told Perreira to put his feet back.
That is when the HPD officer found a black pistol magazine that dropped from the bottom of Perreira’s pants legs and fell onto the roadway.
The magazine was loaded with seven rounds of ammunition. The officer then saw a black pistol on the rear driver-side edge of the bench seat where Perreira’s hands had been before the officer told him to swing his legs out the door, according to court records.
The HPD officer seized a black 9mm pistol with no serial number or manufacturer, otherwise known as a “ghost gun.”
An HPD drug-detecting K9, whose name was not immediately made public, was brought in and found illegal drugs in Perreira’s backpack. On Aug 26, HPD officers obtained and executed a state search warrant on Perreira’s blue bag and backpack.
Inside the bag, police found two plastic baggies containing methamphetamine. Laboratory results are pending, according to federal court records. Officers also found nine Ziploc baggies containing a white “rock-like substance which resembled crack cocaine.”
Inside Perreira’s backpack, police found two digital scales, numerous empty Ziploc baggies, and eight plastic baggies containing a green leafy substance purported to be cannabis.
HPD arrested Perreira on suspicion of promoting a dangerous drug in the second degree, place to keep pistol, felon in possession of a firearm, place to keep ammunition, and promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree.
Perreira waived his rights and admitted to HPD officers that the 9mm pistol belonged to him and that he sold fentanyl, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis.
Perreira’s 16 state convictions include six felonies, for drugs, domestic violence and escape. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2011 for domestic violence. Felons like Perreira are prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition under federal law.