The FBI confidential informant who posed as a drug trafficker in the undercover operation resulting in the arrest of Yona Mayor Jesse Blas has been revealed as her federal case was unsealed by the District Court on Monday.
While the FBI only identified the confidential informant by the first name Brenda, a plea agreement entered one year ago by Brenda Kinian suggests that she is the individual who assisted the FBI in uncovering the sale of USPS cluster box units at the Yona Mayors office for drug trafficking purposes by Mayor Jesse Blas.
The plea agreement, which was unsealed on Monday, reveals that Kinian engaged in a $450,000 scam by convincing store owners who were robbed that the FBI would protect them from being targeted in exchange for the cash.
The scam played out for a year, from April 2017 to about May 31, 2018 during which court documents state she and her accomplices acted with the intent to obtain such property through extortion “by the wrongful use of threatened force, violence or fear by falsely representing themselves to be and assuming to act as FBI agents.”
She pleaded guilty to extortion as well as aiding and abetting extortion under pretense of office and employment. In return for the deal, she agreed to assist the government as an informant.
Although Kinian was not specifically identified, information contained in court documents points towards Kinian being the informant.
Statements made by FBI agent Rafael Fernandez indicated that Brenda was already relocated off-island for her protection.
According to court documents, the government filed a motion to release her passports and allow travel to Yap stating: “The government believes that a security risk exists for Ms. Kinian and requests that the defendant be allowed to travel to Yap and remain there for 90 days unless she is required by the court to appear for a hearing here on Guam.”
It was during the detention hearing for Mayor Blas that the government stressed his pre-trial release would be a danger to the community, stressing that they believed he would use his elected position as mayor and connections to local law enforcement to obstruct justice through witness tampering.
District Court Chief Judge Francis Tydingco-Gatewood sided with the government ruling that there were no conditions or combination of conditions to ensure this did not occur.
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