Judge terminates Fang’s motion to review detention order

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona directed the court’s clerk on Friday to terminate the motion for review of detention order filed by Xing Bo Fang, the man tagged by authorities as the alleged leader of a group of methamphetamine suppliers on Saipan.

Manglona issued the order after Fang, through counsel David Banes, withdrew his request to review the pretrial detention order.

Fang withdrew his motion because he already pleaded guilty on Thursday.

In that motion, Banes had asked the court to review the detention order issued by Magistrate Judge Heather Kennedy, saying it is defective on its face. Banes said Kennedy’s order failed to apply the standard of review as it does not contain any specific fact-finding or explanatory reasoning.

In her order, Kennedy noted, among other things, that the weight of the evidence against Fang, including audio and video recordings of events, gave clear and convincing evidence that no condition of release will reasonably assure the community’s safety.

Before filing the motion, Fang, through counsel Banes, also brought the detention issue before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He later withdrew the appeal.

Last Tuesday, April 1, the Ninth Circuit granted Fang’s motion for voluntary dismissal of the appeal.

Fang, 36, signed a plea agreement with the U.S. government. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.

The offense carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, a $10 million fine, and a $100 special assessment fee.

Fang will be sentenced on July 11, 2014, at 9am.

According to the plea agreement, Fang sold about 98.7 grams of 98.0 percent pure methamphetamine hydrochloride to a confidential source of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Dec. 27, 2013, at the instruction of Fang’s co-defendant, Yu Hua Wang. Fang himself personally handled the drug and handed it over to the DEA confidential source.

While the confidential source did not give any money to Fang or Wang on that day, the confidential source later gave Wang $8,500 in U.S. government “buy money,” according to assistant U.S. attorney Ross Naughton.

Before that, on Nov. 18, 2013, Fang sold 14.6 grams of 98.5 percent pure methamphetamine hydrochloride to the same DEA confidential source for $2,700, Naughton said.

Fang and Wang were among seven persons arrested in February by joint local and federal law enforcements for alleged distribution of “ice.” Wang is being tagged as the alleged second-in-command of an organization of drug suppliers on Saipan.