Dope in Vending Machines? Complaint Alleges Honolulu Liquor Commission Does Nothing to Shut Down ‘ballsiest drug op in recent memory’
by Andrew Walden
Akamai readers may remember this item from December 6, 2023:
…(Marc K. Goto and Frankie Nguyen) 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 pair allegedly used a building Goto is leasing at 531 Waikamilo Road and another at 1388 Colburn St. as marketplaces for illegal drugs in a nightclub known as Aether, Club Aether and Aether Afterhours, according to the complaint. Goto is also leasing an office at 736 South St., Suite 102, that has signs out front for “Aether Health and Wellness, Inc.”…
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator, Marc Goto is now BOP Inmate #10942-506 at HDC, and Frankie Nguyen was BOP Inmate #10943-506, currently “not in BOP custody.”
But what about the club? Aether was totally unlicensed--one of dozens that popped up during COVID. It is now called ‘Anura’ and, according to DCCA BREG, its ‘agent’ is Goto’s daughter.
According to a Liquor Commission complaint filed May 11, 2026, by Honolulu resident Robert Sobieralski, who is affiliated with the (licensed) Scarlet Honolulu club in Chinatown, Aether/Anura has continued operating with neither the Honolulu Police Department nor the Liquor Commission acting to shut it down.
Complaint 'Exhibit C' reproduces an email exchange in which Liquor Commission Chairman Jeff Hong allegedly says:
“Unlicensed properties are not currently on our agenda for discussion. I recall having had previous open session discussions to address unlicensed entities. We are aware of it as an issue, and the Administration has conducted discussions with HPD and other city agencies. While the Commission would appear to have statutory authority with unlicensed premises, enforcement is a criminal rather than regulatory function. In practice, we our understaffed with regulating licensed premises and not trained for criminal enforcement.”
Here are key passages from the complaint:
B. Aether Health & Wellness / Anura: A Detailed Chronology
5. On December 15, 2020, Marc K. Goto registered Aether Health & Wellness, Inc. with the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA), using a mailing address of 2838 Booth Road, Honolulu. The club operated on Waiakamilo Road in Kalihi, approximately 2.3 miles from HLC headquarters. A licensed venue, Underdogs, was located 230 feet across the street from Aether and was subject to regular HLC inspections during the same period. Despite this physical proximity to a monitored licensee, Aether operated openly and without any HLC action from its founding through the present.
6. Aether became widely popular during the pandemic. While licensed nightclubs were shuttered, Aether operated continuously, without pandemic compliance or HLC inspection. Aether’s Google listing accumulated public reviews in which patrons discussed drink prices, bar minimums, and the club’s atmosphere — establishing publicly visible, readily searchable evidence of alcohol sales. Public social media posts dating to October 2022 promoted the venue with hashtags including #afterhours and #hawaii, and a 2023 r/Hawaii Reddit thread titled “Aether nightclub running the ballsiest drug op in recent memory with drug vending machines” was publicly accessible and highly visible.
7. In November 2022, a security guard at Aether distributed fentanyl he had mistaken for cocaine to four fellow employees. All four overdosed and were transported to local hospitals. This incident occurred at an unlicensed venue selling alcohol without a license within the HLC’s jurisdictional territory.
8. On April 9, 2023, a patron fatally overdosed inside the restroom at Aether. HPD, Honolulu Fire Department, and EMTs responded. The victim was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. The City Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the cause of death “drug death-acute intoxication,” with toxicology showing fentanyl, xylazine, cocaine, and MDMA as contributing factors. Federal court records confirm that both Goto and a co-defendant were present when police arrived and that neither gave a statement. The victim has been identified in community accounts as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
9. In December 2023, following an undercover DEA investigation during which agents purchased cocaine, MDMA, and ketamine from a vending machine installed on the premises, Goto and a co-defendant were arrested and federally indicted on drug trafficking charges. The federal indictment detailed the November 2022 fentanyl overdose of four security staff and the April 2023 fatal overdose. Goto also operated a drive-through drug distribution site at a separate location. A co-defendant subsequently pleaded guilty to drug trafficking at Aether in 2024. Goto’s federal case remains pending.
10. Following the federal arrests, Aether reopened within weeks — without any intervention by the HLC or HPD. In 2024 the venue rebranded as Anura. On September 1, 2025, Madisyn Goto — Marc Goto’s 20-year-old daughter — registered Anura Presents LLC with the DCCA using the identical mailing address (2838 Booth Road) used on her father’s original 2020 Aether filing, following dissolution of Aether’s state registration. The continuity of ownership, address, and operations is documented in public DCCA records.
11. In November 2025, Petitioner submitted a public records request to HPD for all 911 calls to the Aether/Anura address. HPD responded that it would produce only one year of records. The HPD computer-aided dispatch (CAD) records produced document the following incidents at 531 Waiakamilo Road (and the adjacent 1388 Colburn Street address) between October 2024 and July 2025 — every one of which occurred during the late-night or early-morning hours when the venue was operating:
--Incident 24-383196 (October 20, 2024, 3:36 AM): A caller at a “rave event” at 531 Waiakamilo Road reported staff “giving her problems.” Three HPD units responded. Disposition: “Sixty” (gone on arrival). No enforcement action on alcohol or licensing.
--Incident 25-070325 (February 22, 2025, 1:54 AM): Open 911 line from 531 Waiakamilo Road, music audible in background. One unit responded. Disposition: “UTL” (unable to locate). No enforcement action.
--Incident 250419-0954 (April 19, 2025, 2:27 PM) and Incident 250427-0912 (April 27, 2025, 1:10 PM): Calls to 531 Waiakamilo Road and the adjacent 1388 Colburn Street address. Both cancelled before response. The April 27 CAD record lists the location as “WHOLESALE MATTRESS” — the name under which the building is commercially registered, confirming HPD’s systems associate the physical address with that cover identity.
--Incident 250604-0610 (June 4, 2025, 9:22 AM): Open 911 line from 1388 Colburn Street. One unit dispatched but reassigned and cancelled. Linked to a concurrent incident.
--Incident 25-257486 (July 13, 2025, 2:20 AM): Simple assault. Caller reported a bouncer had punched a patron in the face. Four HPD units and EMS responded. A case report was generated. The CAD system identifies the location as “AETHER” — confirming that HPD’s own dispatch system still associates the address with that name. The responding units were on scene for nearly 48 minutes. No action on the venue’s unlicensed liquor operation was taken.
In each instance in which HPD units made contact at the scene, officers responded to the immediate 911 call and departed without citing, warning, or otherwise acting on the unlicensed alcohol service that was openly occurring. The venue was operating as a nightclub at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 in the morning — plainly visible, well-known to HPD dispatch, and identified by name in HPD’s own CAD system as “AETHER” — and neither HPD nor the HLC took any licensing enforcement action across the entire one-year period for which records were produced.
12. The commercial scale of Aether’s unlicensed liquor operation is documented in federal court records. Revenue records for Aether Health and Wellness submitted by the Department of Justice in Case 1:26-cr-00034-LEK (Document 93-1, filed April 13, 2026) show that the venue generated $324,734 in total revenue in 2022 (cash: $107,785; credit: $216,046) and $737,178 in total revenue in 2023 (cash: $214,231; credit: $502,947) — a total of over $1,061,000 across the two years, with revenue more than doubling year-over-year. This was not an informal gathering. It was a large, commercially successful, growing unlicensed liquor operation that operated openly throughout the period, adjacent to licensed venues that the HLC actively inspected, and with a public social media presence. The Commission took no action.
13. Anura’s own website (anuraevents.com) and social media contain photographs of patrons holding drinks, constituting publicly accessible evidence of ongoing liquor service at an unlicensed premises….
read … The Full Complaint