The Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG target Hawaii with fentanyl and meth.

HONOLULU — Locals tout the tangerine sunsets on Oahu’s quieter west coast, but homeless tents at the ocean’s edge point to a growing problem: toxins in paradise brought in by Mexican cartels.

The dominant super cartels — Sinaloa and its rival, the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, known as CJNG — are running drug pipelines through California and Nevada to flood Oahu with meth and other drugs, including fentanyl, said Victor Vazquez, assistant special agent in charge the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s activities in Hawaii.

“It’s alarming,” he said. “If it weren’t for the ocean, the drugs would have gone straight to Waikiki,” referring to the bustling tourist spot on Honolulu’s south coast, filled with high-rise hotels, restaurants and shops.

As in remote Alaska, cartels in Hawaii face less competition than on the mainland, allowing them to demand a higher price.

Drug networks are also sneaking cocaine and heroin into Hawaii, along with the meth and fentanyl, said U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors, who oversees federal prosecutors in the District of Hawaii.

“We know these are cartel-produced drugs because of our interdiction efforts,” she said.

Drug shipments arrive first in the state capital of Honolulu, often smuggled in airline passengers’ luggage or in mail packages, she said. They are then smuggled to the other Hawaiian islands.

“We also still see that it comes in a lot through body carrying,” says Connors. He is referring to airline passengers who hide it on their body or in hand luggage.

“It’s somehow working its way through TSA operations,” she said, referring to federal Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.

The Mexican cartels’ determination to target Hawaii – despite its remote location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – illustrates a key monetization strategy to reach their tentacles far beyond major US cities and into more remote states with fewer competitors and fewer police resources.

Oahu isn’t the state’s largest island, but it has been called the “heart of Hawaii” and remains one of its most famous and visited locations. 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 on to another island.

Some drug shipments stay in Honolulu, but others are distributed to far-flung corners of the island, said Vazquez, the DEA supervisor. That creates an often-hidden divide between happy vacationers and downtrodden residents battling addiction.

“No one should be surprised,” Vazquez said. “Everyone needs to be aware that it affects all 50 states and territories.”

On Oahu’s east coast, known as the Windward Area, tourists are drawn to the lush rainforests and dramatic valleys seen in films like Jurassic Park. The island’s north coast is known for world-class surfing competitions and a more relaxed atmosphere, along with the pineapple fields of Dole.

In the southeast, snorkeling enthusiasts draw millions of visitors every year to the cobalt blue waters of Hanauma Bay, a nature reserve in a volcanic cone.

Every region of Oahu has been affected by the drug crisis, Vazquez said, but hardest hit is the leeward region, or west side, which is praised by many locals for having the island’s best sunsets and being home to a large native Hawaiian population. It is also home to a number of crime-ridden areas.

“I am deeply concerned that it is upon us and that we are going to see even more tragic consequences among our young people in our state,” Connors said.

To better understand the scope of Hawaii’s drug crisis, a Courier Journal reporter spent several days on Oahu in June to talk with the DEA, local police, an emergency room doctor and leaders and participants in a recovery program for native Hawaiian men in the leeward region. most of whom have spent time in prison.

According to the DEA’s 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment, synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and meth are blamed for nearly all fatal drug poisonings in the US.

Gary Yabuta, a veteran attorney and retired Maui police chief, said meth has been the dominant drug plaguing Hawaii for decades. The drug brings a jolt of energy, but can also lead to paranoia and violence.

Meth doesn’t always get the full blame it deserves, doctors say, because it can slowly kill over time and often causes heart failure.

Meth on the streets today, also known as “ice,” typically has a purity of almost 100%, far deadlier than the 50% purity of single-pot home labs that were popular in the US years ago.

“I call methamphetamine death cancer — you die every day at the same time,” said Yabuta, who now works in Honolulu and oversees the state’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task forces.

“It’s being smuggled across the border by the cartel gatekeepers,” Yabuta said. “It devastated Hawaii.”

Yabuta and DEA agents have also noticed an increase in fentanyl, a man-made opioid that now reigns as the No. 1 drug killing Americans.

A “Blue 30” or fake oxycodone pain pill sells for as little as $2 in Los Angeles but can fetch $16 or more in Hawaii, an example of what draws cartel powers to the islands, Vazquez said. Seven out of 10 pills the DEA seizes in the US now contain a potentially lethal dose, according to the agency’s cautionary ‘One Pill Can Kill’ campaign.

A year ago, the DEA formed an overdose response task force, working with local police and government-funded drug investigators overseen by Yabuta. They trace the overdose victim’s last contacts, looking at text messages and phone calls, to determine the source of the fatal dose.

A mission to warn Hawaiians about the dangers of meth use

Dr. Mark Baker, an Oahu-based emergency medicine specialist, said he often asks overdose survivors when they first tried meth. Some admitted they first tried the highly addictive drug when they were 11 years old.

“Long-term problems from meth usually include heart failure and psychiatric problems,” Baker recently told The Courier Journal during a brief break from his emergency room duties.

“If someone is homeless, the chances of starting to use meth are quite high, and if someone starts using meth, the chances of becoming homeless are quite high.”

Baker founded endmeth.org and spends much of his free time on a mission to warn Hawaiians about the dangers of meth 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 have served time in prison, through culturally-based addiction treatment. The program offers 75-day residential treatment, as well as a variety of outpatient services, said Momi Nelson, the program’s executive director.

Current participants in the program recently gathered on a mountain in the valley of Mount Kaala, Oahu’s highest peak at 4,000 feet. The men clasp hands and take turns in individual and group chants, asking ancestors for permission to walk across the land dotted with thick trees and blossoming orange and fuchsia flowers.

Hyimeen Akiona, cultural director at the program for 10 years, teaches the prayer chants to drive away negative and harmful thoughts and actions and focus on gratitude and brotherhood.

“They need that sense of belonging,” Akiona said.

After working up a sweat outside, the men often head to the ocean for a spiritual cleansing.

Akiona boasts about program participants such as Taugaifala Fatu who have emerged as leaders. He joined the program from prison in November and is doing well.

“You can change your life through your roots,” said Fatu, who served a prison sentence for an assault.

Keali’i Siazon, who served time behind bars on theft and meth charges, said the program gives him much-needed structure in his life.

“We become one, like a family,” he said.

Although these men benefit from recovery treatment, Native Hawaiian-Pacific Islander men and women are, on average, three times less likely to receive mental health treatment and medications for mental health problems, compared to non-Hispanic white men and women, according to a finding from 2019 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 substance abuse treatment through the Hawaii State Department of Health’s Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Some programs offer equine therapy treatment, 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 collaboration with the Department of Health, other emergency room physicians and experienced narcotics investigators.

“It won’t get better until we do something as a whole community to recognize how bad the problem is,” the doctor said. “And take steps to put an end to it.”

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