HONOLULU — Locals brag about the glowing orange sunsets they see off Oahu’s tranquil west coast, but the homeless tents dotted along the shoreline hint at a growing problem: poisons brought to this paradise by Mexican drug cartels.
Victor Vásquez, assistant special agent in charge of operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Hawaii division, said the dominant supercartel, Sinaloa, and its rival, Cartel Jalisco New Eva Generación (CJNG), have built drug pipelines through California and Nevada, flooding Oahu with drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl.
“This is alarming,” he said. “Without the ocean, the drugs would go straight to Waikiki,” he said, referring to the bustling tourist area on Honolulu’s south shore lined with high-rise hotels, restaurants and shops.
As in far-flung Alaska, cartels can demand higher prices in Hawaii because there is less competition than on the mainland.
U.S. Attorney Claire E. Connors, who oversees federal prosecutors for the District of Hawaii, said the drug network was smuggling methamphetamine and fentanyl, as well as cocaine and heroin, into Hawaii.
“We know, thanks to our interdiction efforts, that it was produced by a drug cartel,” she said.
She said drug contraband first arrives in the state capital, Honolulu, often in airline passenger luggage or packages sent through the mail, before being smuggled to other Hawaiian islands.
“We’re also seeing a lot of carry-on deliveries,” Connors said, meaning airline passengers bring the drugs on board, either concealed on their person or in their carry-on luggage.
“Somehow it’s going through the TSA checkpoint,” she said, referring to the federal Transportation Security Administration checkpoint.
Mexico’s drug cartels’ determination to target Hawaii despite its remote location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean represents a key money-making strategy to reach far beyond major U.S. cities into outlying states with fewer competitors and police resources.
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Although Oahu is not the largest island in the state of Hawaii, it is known as the “Heart of Hawaii” and is one of the most well-known and visited. Tourists, including drug traffickers, first fly into Honolulu, the state’s busiest airport and home to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, even if they plan to go to other islands.
Vasquez, the DEA supervisor, said some drug smuggling remains in Honolulu, but other trafficking spreads to every corner of the island, creating an often-hidden dichotomy between happy vacationers and depressed residents battling drug addiction.
“Nobody should be surprised,” Vasquez said. “Everyone should be aware that this affects all 50 states and territories.”
Oahu’s east coast is known as the windward region, attracting tourists with lush rainforests and dramatic valleys featured in films such as Jurassic Park, while the island’s north shore is known for its Dole pineapple fields, world-class surfing competitions and a more laid-back atmosphere.
In the Southeast, millions of visitors flock here each year to snorkel in the cobalt blue and turquoise waters of Hanauma Bay, a nature preserve formed inside a volcanic cone.
Vasquez said all parts of Oahu are affected by the drug crisis, but it’s the leeward, or west, side that’s been hit the hardest: an area praised by many locals as having the best sunsets on the island, a large Native Hawaiian population and many high-crime neighborhoods.
“It’s right on our doorstep and I’m very concerned that we’re going to start seeing more tragic outcomes among the young people in our state,” Connors said.
To get a better understanding of the scale of Hawaii’s opioid crisis, reporters from the Louisville Courier-Journal, part of the USA Today Network, spent several days on Oahu in June talking to the DEA, local police, emergency physicians and leaders and participants of the Downwind Community Recovery Program, a program for Native Hawaiian men, most of whom have served time in prison.
According to the DEA’s 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment, synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamine are responsible for nearly all fatal drug overdose cases across the United States.
Veteran police officer and former Maui Police Chief Gary Yabuta said methamphetamine has been the primary drug plaguing Hawaii for decades. The drug can energize but also cause paranoia and violence.
Doctors say methamphetamine doesn’t get the stigma it deserves because it kills people slowly over time and often leads to heart failure.
The methamphetamine on the streets today, known as “ice,” is typically nearly 100 percent pure, making it far more lethal than the 50 percent purity of the one-off home drug labs that were popular across the U.S. a few years ago.
“I call methamphetamine deaths a cancer. Every day someone dies,” said Yabuta, who now helps oversee the state’s drug trafficking task force in Honolulu.
“Drug cartel gatekeepers are smuggling drugs across the border,” Yabuta said. “Hawaii is in a state of devastation.”
Yabuta and his DEA agents have also noticed an increase in fentanyl, a man-made opioid that is now the No. 1 drug killing Americans.
Fake oxycodone painkillers, known as “Blue 30,” sell for about $2 in Los Angeles but more than $16 in Hawaii, illustrating why drug cartel kingpins are drawn to the island, Vasquez said. Seven in 10 pills seized by the DEA in the U.S. now contain a potentially lethal dose, according to the agency’s “One Pill Can Kill” warning campaign.
A year ago, the DEA formed an overdose task force, working with local police and federally funded narcotics agents overseen by Yabuta, to examine texts and phone calls to trace overdose victims’ last known contacts and pinpoint the source of fatal doses.
Mission to warn Hawaiians of the dangers of methamphetamine use
Dr. Mark Baker, an emergency medicine physician on Oahu, said he frequently asks overdose survivors when they first used methamphetamine, with some admitting they first tried the highly addictive drug at age 11.
“The long-term problems with methamphetamine are primarily heart failure and psychiatric illness,” Baker told The Courier Journal in a recent interview between shifts in the emergency room.
“Homeless people are much more likely to start using stimulants, and if they start using stimulants, they’re much more likely to become homeless.”
Baker founded endmeth.org and spends much of his free time educating Hawaiians about the dangers of methamphetamine use.
In the hardest-hit western community of Waianae, the Ho’omau Ke Ola Treatment Program guides Native Hawaiians, many of whom have served time in prison, through culturally immersive addiction treatment. The program offers 75-day inpatient treatment as well as a range of outpatient services, said Momi Nelson, the program’s executive director.
Current program participants recently gathered at the Mt. KaalaAt 4,000 feet, the highest peak on Oahu, the men clasp hands and take turns chanting, individually and in groups, to ask their ancestors for permission to walk across the land of dense trees and blooming orange and fuchsia buds.
Himeen Akiona, the program’s cultural director for 10 years, teaches prayer songs to dispel negative and harmful thoughts and actions and focus on gratitude and brotherly love.
“They need a sense of belonging,” Akiona said.
After working up a sweat outdoors, the men often head to the sea for spiritual cleansing.
Akiona is proud of some of the program’s participants who have emerged as leaders, such as Taugaifala Fatu, who joined the program from prison in November and has thrived.
“You can change your life through your roots,” said Fatu, who served time in prison for assault.
Keali’i Siazon, who served time in prison for theft and methamphetamine possession, said the program has brought much-needed order to his life.
“We come together like a family,” he said.
While these men have benefited from recovery treatment, on average, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander men and women are three times less likely to receive mental health services or medication for mental health issues than non-Hispanic white men and women, according to a 2019 study by the Office of Minority Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. When left untreated, anxiety, depression and other mental health issues often lead to substance abuse.
The state of Hawaii, through its Department of Health’s Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, has developed a five-year plan to promote “culturally competent” and comprehensive mental health and substance abuse treatment in 2022. Some programs offer therapeutic horseback riding, group nature hikes, sunset yoga and marine therapy treatments that include surfing and swimming with dolphins.
Baker said in addition to treating overdose and heart patients, he will continue to focus on prevention through collaboration with state health officials, other emergency physicians and veteran narcotics investigators.
“Unless we as a community recognize the seriousness of this problem and take steps to end it, the situation is not going to get better,” the doctor said.
