Two men are facing federal charges for allegedly selling cocaine, ecstasy, magic mushrooms and other drugs out of vending machines in a Honolulu after-hours club and in a fake health and wellness store.
At least three overdoses, one of them fatal, were reported in the past 13 months at the Aether, a popular nightclub on Waiakamilo Road. The club is known for electronic music, and according to its website stars from Spain, Thailand and the U.S. — AFFKT, SoundSex, Jordan Strong, Chaddy Daddy and Higher Concept — have spun sets there.
In a criminal complaint filed Monday, Marc C. Goto, 52, and Frankie Nguyen, 32, were charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute psilocybin (magic mushrooms), MDMA (ecstasy) and ketamine.
Agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Honolulu police officers seized ledgers and more than $200,000 from Goto’s residence.
Goto allegedly told investigators that he and Nguyen ran the drug distribution businesses, according to federal court documents.
The DEA accuses Goto and Nguyen of using properties for “distributing controlled substances via vending machines and hand-to-hand transactions.”
The DEA said it learned from an interview with convicted drug dealer Matthew McBraun in November 2022 that he sold a colleague looking for cocaine a bag of fentanyl by mistake. Four nightclub employees who overdosed on the drugs in the bag were hospitalized but survived.
A federal jury convicted McBraun of selling fentanyl and heroin, and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl, according to federal court records.
Coded entry McBraun told DEA agents that there was a back room at the club “that customers have access to via a keypad code that they get from staff,” according to the complaint. In that room there is “a vending machine that dispenses bags of cocaine marked with a slash mark, and bags of Ketamine that are marked with a ‘K.’”