Drug fight toughens as Mexican cartels ramp up in Hawaii

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Drug cartels from Mexico are operating in Hawaii, making and pushing deadly drugs including methamphetamines and fentanyl. New tougher penalties akin to murder charges are aiming to take them down.

Authorities told KHON2 that the big cartels are ramping up business not just south of the border but right here in our island state. The top federal law enforcement official in Hawaii warns of the dangers not just to drug users, but to drug pushers once caught.

Authorities have seen a big shift in recent years to Hawaii’s most dangerous drugs methamphetamine and fentanyl especially coming mostly from Mexico, not the local meth labs of old.

“Violent cartels, primarily the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartels, and they’re killing each other,” explains Gary Yabuta, executive director of the Hawaii High Density Drug Trafficking Area. “They’re competing for territory and turf to make sure that their drugs get across the border and sent throughout the nation, including Hawaii.”

KHON2 asked: How does it get to Hawaii?

“Oh, very easy. Just like you get Amazon products through the mail, you order it online and it’s shipped to you. So that’s probably the primary transportation method of getting methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, to Hawaii and to people that use it and die from it, Yabuta explained.

As for what’s shipped in: “Probably small containers, because they’re more easy to ship over. They’re less suspicious of being sent in smaller packages, where they can come very easy, as if it was a household product,” Yabuta said. “And also, you can’t forget air passenger carriers, we get thousands of visitors from the mainland every day, and some of them bring drugs with them to sell here in Hawaii or to drop off.

KHON2 asked U.S. Attorney Clare Connors: Who is behind it, and where are they?

“We are finding that there are members of the Sinaloa or the Jalisco New Generation cartel who are residing in Hawaii, so we have seen that,” Connors said. “Largely, however, it is cartel interaction with local drug trafficking organizations.”

Those pushers get it into the hands of a growing number of victims — thousands sent to the emergency room with overdoses, and more than 100 a year losing their lives to fentanyl.

“Methamphetamine is still our greatest drug threat here in Hawaii, and that has risen, too throughout the years, including 2023 drug-related deaths,” Yabuta said. “However, fentanyl drug-related deaths are catching up. It’s rising at a faster rate.”

Those deaths are being treated akin to murder, penalty-wise, with federal law enforcement using a significant new tool passed by Congress.

“You will face a mandatory minimum of 20 years if you are convicted of having sold somebody a drug that resulted in an overdose and death,” Connors said. “A 20-year mandatory minimum is not a penalty that you see often in the types of cases that we prosecute. But for sure, it is now clear that we are very serious about addressing those who deal in drugs that result in death.”

Connors explained that most fentanyl overdoses on the island has resulted in death, and that among the victims of these overdoses are military service members.

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Authorities are pleading with the public, parents and youth especially to beware the risks of recreational drugs, saying it’s just too dangerous and deadly now.

“Increasingly, and if you look at the D.E.A. information, seven out of 10 times, you’re potentially going to be ingesting a lethal dose of fentanyl,” Connors said.

She says they’re seeing fentanyl laced in the vapes kids are offered, but also even in seemingly pharmaceutical pills, and it all ties back to major cartel pushers.

“We need to educate that the one pill can kill,” Connors said. “If you are on a trip with your sports team and somebody says, hey, here’s a Percocet to take because you’re got an ache, don’t take it because you don’t know what is in that drug.”