by Mindy Aguon

Guam - It marks one of the biggest drug busts in recent months, as Customs and Quarantine agents and drug detector dogs snuffing out a drug trafficking scheme.

Last week Roland Anthony Nauta's luck ran out. He'd gone to Postnet to pick up a package sent from California, as he'd done several times before, and headed to his home in Astumbo, Dededo. But Nauta had a suspicion that he was being followed.

According to court documents, Daniel James Acfalle got on a four-wheeler to look for anyone who may have been watching them. After checking for himself, Nauta returned to his home and Paul San Nicolas Acfalle then took the package and decided to get rid of the evidence by throwing it in the barbecue pit and burning it.

Fortunately for law enforcement professionals that were conducting surveillance, they'd already intercepted the package at the post office. Customs and Quarantine Agency spokesperson Lieutenant Ferdinand Soriano told KUAM News, "We were initially working with the U.S. Postal Inspector with our Drug Detector Dog Unit. We were doing regular sweeps of the postal facility and they came upon this particular package, which the dogs alerted to."

The package contained 337 grams of crystal methamphetamine with a street value of a quarter-million dollars.

According to the complaint filed in the District Court, Nauta admitted to federal agents that he had received packages of "ice" on at least eight prior occasions. Those parcels went undetected. Nauta told authorities that he sent $160,000 in small increments through wire transfers to his sources in California to pay for the drugs that he admitted to using and selling at his residence. Agents also found Nauta in possession of a gun that he told them he had purchased to protect himself because of his drug dealing.

The three men appeared in the District Court on Thursday for an initial appearance and were ordered to remain behind bars until a preliminary examination scheduled for March 10, unless an indictment is obtained earlier.

Lt. Soriano meanwhile says this latest bust should serve as a reminder to those involved in drug trafficking, telling KUAM News, "We are doing our best to be as vigilant as possible here at the ports of entry, but we also want to include the public in on this. If there's any type of harmful activity that they know about that we need to know about we can go ahead and assist them."