HONOLULU — Locals tout the tangerine sunsets from Oahu’s sleepy west coast, but the homeless tents dotting the ocean’s edge hint at a growing problem: poisons in paradise brought by Mexican cartels.
The dominant supercartels — Sinaloa and its rival, the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, known as CJNG — run drug pipelines through California and Nevada to flood Oahu with methamphetamine and other drugs, including fentanyl, said Víctor Vázquez, special agent attached to charge of the United States DEA Operations in Hawaii.
“It’s alarming,” he said. “If it weren’t for the ocean, the drugs would go straight to Waikiki,” referring to the bustling tourist spot on Honolulu’s south shore, packed with hotels, restaurants and high-rise shops.
As in remote Alaska, cartels face less competition in Hawaii compared to the mainland, so they can demand a higher price.
Drug rings also bring cocaine and heroin into Hawaii, along with methamphetamine and fentanyl, said U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors, who supervises federal prosecutors in the District of Hawaii.
“We know these are cartel-generated drugs because of our interdiction efforts,” he said.
Drug shipments arrive first in the state capital of Honolulu, often smuggled in the luggage of air passengers or in packages sent through the mail, he said. They are then trafficked to other Hawaiian islands.
“We also see a lot of them coming in through bodily transportation,” Connors said, referring to airline passengers who hide it on their bodies or in carry-on luggage.
“It’s kind of working its way through TSA operations,” he said, referring to federal Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.
The determination of Mexican cartels to target Hawaii – despite its remote location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – illustrates a key money-making strategy to reach their tentacles far beyond major US cities and into more remote states with fewer competitors and fewer police resources.
Oahu is not the largest island in the state, but it is known as the “Heart of Hawaii” being one of the most famous and visited places. Visitors, including drug traffickers, fly first to Honolulu, the state’s busiest airport and home to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, even if they plan to continue to another island.
Some drug shipments remain in Honolulu, but others spread to all corners of the island, said Vázquez, the DEA supervisor. This creates an often hidden dichotomy between happy vacationers and downtrodden residents struggling with addiction.
“No one should be surprised,” Vazquez said. “Everyone should know that it affects all 50 states and territories.”
On Oahu’s east coast, known as the windward region, tourists are drawn to the lush rainforests and spectacular valleys featured in movies like Jurassic Park. The islands North Coast It is known for world-class surfing competitions and a more relaxed atmosphere, along with Dole’s pineapple fields.
To the southeast, snorkeling draws millions of visitors annually to the cobalt and teal waters of Hanauma Baya natural reserve formed within a volcanic cone.
All regions of Oahu have been affected by the drug crisis, Vazquez said, but the hardest hit is the sotavento, or west side, region, lauded by many locals for having the best sunsets on the island and being home of a large native Hawaiian population. It is also home to a number of crime-ridden areas.
“I’m very concerned that it’s about to come and that we’re going to start seeing more tragic consequences in our state among our young people,” Connors said.
To better understand the scope of Hawaii’s drug crisis, a Courier Journal reporter spent several days on Oahu in June speaking with the DEA, local police, an emergency room doctor and leaders and participants of a Leeward-area recovery program for Native Hawaiian men, most of whom served prison time.
Synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl and methamphetamineare responsible for nearly all fatal drug poisonings in the United States, according to the DEA’s 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment.
Gary Yabuta, a veteran law enforcement officer and retired Maui police chief, said methamphetamine has remained the dominant drug in Hawaii for decades. The drug provides a rush of energy, but can also cause paranoia and violence.
Doctors say methamphetamine doesn’t always get all the blame it deserves because it can kill slowly over time, often causing heart failure.
The methamphetamine found on the streets today, called “ice,” is typically close to 100 percent pure, far more lethal than the 50 percent purity found in the one-pot home labs popular in the United States years ago.
“I call death from methamphetamine cancer: You die one day at a time,” said Yabuta, who now works in Honolulu supervising the state’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task forces.
“Cartel enforcers smuggle it across the border,” Yabuta said. “It has devastated Hawaii.”
Yabuta and DEA agents have also noticed an increase in fentanyl, a man-made opioid that now reigns as the number one drug killing Americans.
A “Blue 30,” or fake oxycodone painkiller, sells for as little as $2 in Los Angeles, but can fetch $16 or more in Hawaii, exemplifying what attracts cartel powerhouses to the islands, Vazquez said. Seven out of 10 pills seized in the US by the DEA now contain a potentially lethal dose, according to the agency’s warning “One pill can kill” Campaign.
A year ago, the DEA formed an overdose response task force, working with local police and federally funded drug investigators and overseen by Yabuta. They trace the overdose victim’s last contacts, reviewing text messages and calls, to trace the source of the fatal dose.
A mission to warn Hawaiians about the dangers of methamphetamine use
Dr. Mark Baker, an Oahu emergency medicine specialist, said he often asks overdose survivors when they first used meth. Some admitted that they first tried this highly addictive drug when they were 11 years old.
“The long-term problems caused by methamphetamine are mostly heart failure and psychiatric problems,” Baker told The Courier Journal in a recent interview during a brief break from his emergency room duties.
“If someone is homeless, their chances of starting to use meth are pretty high, and if someone starts using meth, their chances of becoming homeless are pretty high.”
baker founded endmeth.org and spends much of his free time on a mission to warn Hawaiians about the dangers of methamphetamine use.
On the hardest-hit west side, in the community of Waianae, the Ho’omau Ke Ola treatment program guides Native Hawaiians, many of whom served time in prison, through culturally harnessing addiction treatment. The program offers residential treatment for 75 days, as well as a variety of outpatient services, said the program’s executive director, Momi Nelson.
Participants in the current program recently gathered on a mountain in the valley of Mount Kaala, Oahu’s highest peak at 4,000 feet. The men hold hands and take turns during individual and group chants, asking the ancestors for permission to walk the land, dotted with thick orange and fuchsia trees and flowers.
Hyimeen Akiona, cultural director of the program for a decade, teaches prayer songs to chase away negative and harmful thoughts and actions and focus on gratitude and sisterhood.
“They need that sense of belonging,” Akiona said.
After sweating outdoors, men often head to the ocean for a spiritual cleanse.
Akiona boasts of program participants, like Taugaifala Fatu, who have become leaders. She transitioned from jail to the program in November and is thriving.
“You can change your life through your roots,” said Fatu, who served time in prison for an assault.
Keali’i Siazon, who served time behind bars for robbery and methamphetamine charges, said the program gives him much-needed structure in his life.
“We became one, like a family,” he said.
While these men benefit from remedial treatment, on average, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander men and women benefit from remedial treatment. three times less likely to receive treatment for mental health services and medications for mental health problems compared to non-Hispanic white men and women, according to a 2019 finding from the Office of Minority Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Untreated anxiety, depression and other mental health problems often lead to substance abuse.
The State of Hawaii developed a five-year plan in 2022 to promote “culturally appropriate” and comprehensive mental health and drug addiction treatments through the Hawaii State Department of Health’s Division of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Some programs offer treatment through equine therapy, group nature walks, sunset yoga, and ocean therapy, including surfing and swimming with dolphins.
In addition to treating overdose patients and those suffering from heart disease, Baker said he will continue to focus on prevention through his partnership with state health department officials, other emergency room physicians and veteran narcotics investigators.
“It won’t get better until we, as an entire community, do something to recognize how serious the problem is,” the doctor said. “And take steps to put an end to it.”
Further:How police rescued a woman from a ritual murder in the middle of a huge trafficking ring in Mexico
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