Drug-related deaths in Honolulu hit a five-year high last year, fueled by methamphetamine overdoses that have law enforcement focused on keeping more illegal drugs out of the islands.

There were 197 drug- related deaths in Honolulu last year, compared to 191 in 2019; 157 in 2018; 163 in 2017; and 171 in 2016, according to the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office. The average age of those who died as a result of drug use was about 51. The youngest was 15, the only adolescent death, and the oldest was 98.

The overwhelming number of deaths — 148 — were due to methamphetamine.

“A lot of methamphetamine comes from Mexico and that slowed down for some time,” Honolulu Police Department Maj. Phillip Johnson, head of HPD’s Narcotics/Vice Division, said. “Those who did have drugs on the ground, the price was quite high and we were not seeing a lot coming in like we normally did. After we started seeing toilet paper returning to the shelves, we saw the drugs come back to the streets.”

Johnson said the COVID-19 pandemic did not hamper HPD’s narcotics enforcement efforts. “Fortunately we kept that under control and it didn’t impact my division. We have our investigations long term and short term, full steam ahead,” he said.

In addition to the increase in meth deaths, law enforcement noticed fentanyl working its way into the mix of drugs sold on Honolulu’s streets and are seizing illegal firearms in an increasing number of drug cases.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and HPD officers are finding fentanyl — a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse — in counterfeit oxycodone pills manufactured in Mexico and transported to Hawaii through California.

Leslie Tomaich, assistant special agent in charge of DEA’s Honolulu District Office, said agents are seeing an increase in fentanyl confiscations. DEA seizures of the drug in powder and pill form this year already have exceeded the entire haul from 2020.

But unlike the Midwest and East Coast, where fentanyl and opioid deaths dominate drug overdose statistics, meth remains Hawaii’s illicit drug of choice.

“Meth has always been our main threat out here,” said Tomaich, a 23-year DEA veteran who worked the streets of San Diego and Mazatlan, Mexico, as a special agent. “The prices increased (during the lockdown). The demand was still there and people were willing to pay the higher prices for it. We were still making significant seizures. Now we’re coming out of it and prices are going back to the levels they were pre-COVID.”

Rising fentanyl threat

In 2016, agents did not uncover any fentanyl during their investigations, but that quickly changed. A total of 593 grams of the powder form of the drug was seized in 2017; 51 grams of powder and about 430 tablets in 2018; a kilogram — 2.2 pounds — of powder and 916 tablets in 2019; and 275 grams of powder and about 1,700 tablets last year.

So far this year, agents have recovered 3 kilograms of powder and 1,233 tablets.

“In the last year it seems to be in just about everything: cocaine, heroin, Xanax … a good percentage is fentanyl,” HPD’s Johnson said. “It’s cheap to produce. It makes a good cutting agent and it doesn’t reduce the effect of the drug. It’s here. It’s in the dope that is coming in. It is a problem.”

The state Department of Health did not reply to requests for comment.

There were 47 drug- related deaths involving illicit opioids in 2020, with 21 involving heroin and 26 involving fentanyl, according to the Honolulu Medical Examiner. That compares to 38 drug-related deaths involving opioids in 2019, with 19 due to heroin and 19 caused by fentanyl. In 2018, there were 27 drug-related deaths due to illicit opioids, with 15 involving heroin, nine involving fentanyl and the remaining three involving other drugs.

Nationally, more than 87,200 people died of a drug overdose from Sept. 1, 2019, to Sept. 1, 2020 — a 29% increase and the largest number of drug-related deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On average, 238 people die of a drug overdose every day in the United States.

“Our principal drug threat in Hawaii, for the last 30 years, has been crystal methamphetamine,” according to Gary Yabuta, executive director of the Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. “It comes in from the Mexican cartels through the West Coast to Hawaii. It’s no longer manufactured in Hawaii. While the mainland is being ravaged by opioids and fentanyl, Hawaii’s problem remains methamphetamine.”

The Hawaii HIDTA is a cross-jurisdictional organization that brings together county, state and federal law enforcement officers to work on illegal-drug cases.

The program is administered nationally by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which has 33 designated HIDTAs. When the Hawaii HIDTA was established in 1999, “ice” methamphetamine and “high-potency marijuana” were seen as the greatest drug threats to the region, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

‘It floats or flies’

Prior to the first pandemic lockdowns at the start of 2020, the price of methamphetamine was about $350 per ounce. By mid-year, the price increased to an average of $2,100 per ounce, according to the Hawaii HIDTA. By year’s end, the price was $650 per ounce.

Today, the price of methamphetamine moves between $400 and $600 an ounce.

Law enforcement officials believe the price increase is related to trans-Pacific air travel restrictions and the arbitrary jump in wholesale drug pricing controlled by the Mexican drug cartels, which are the principal manufacturers and distributors of methamphetamine imported to Hawaii.

“It floats or it flies, that’s the only way they are getting it into Hawaii,” said Richard “Rico” Witt, a former U.S. Postal Service inspector who now serves as the Hawaii HIDTA’s drug intelligence officer. “We saw a decrease in availability last year by the time they stopped all of those flights and prices shot up a lot. Right now, it’s right back down to the original prices.”

HPD credits its partnerships with the Hawaii HIDTA, the DEA and the FBI as critical to the success of illegal-drug cases. The FBI’s Honolulu division declined to comment.

HPD Capt. Kyle Numasaki, who has spent most of his career in the Narcotics/Vice Division, said cutting off the sources of drug shipments in Mexico and on the mainland remains the key to curtailing Honolulu’s drug trade.

“If we are making street buys, the dope is already here,” Numasaki said. “One of the main focuses that we should be looking at is interdiction. There are only two ways the dope can be coming in: through the air and over the ocean. We focus on interdiction and preventing it from coming in. That’s the main thing.”

Yabuta, a former chief of the Maui Police Department, agreed and cited the cross-­jurisdictional cooperation that happens in Hawaii as key to cutting off drug cartels’ supply chains.

“That’s why we have state, local and federal law enforcement participants,” Yabuta said. “We have a mission not only to disrupt drug trafficking but follow the trace … and hopefully take it all the way to Mexico. After we make a seizure here in Hawaii, our next step is — where do these drugs come from?”

The camaraderie and collaboration among county, state and federal agencies is important, the DEA’s Tomaich said.

“You always make better cases when you work with the locals and collaborate. We do that very well in Hawaii,” she said.

Drugs and guns

Police and federal agents are also noticing an alarming number of firearms turning up in drug cases.

“Ghost guns” — unregistered firearms manufactured from parts and plans purchased online or from black market arms dealers — are regularly found by police and federal agents.

“The majority, 90 to 95% of them are ghost guns,” said Tomaich, who is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of four offices located in Hawaii, Guam and Saipan. “In almost every case we’ve seized guns along with dope. I was surprised with the amount of guns here in the islands that we’ve seized. I’m hoping that violence does not increase here. Hawaii is a pretty calm place. I’m concerned by the increase in meth-related deaths.”

HPD’s Johnson echoed Tomaich’s concerns about the relationship between drugs and firearms seized by police that lack serial numbers.

“I wouldn’t say the traffickers are more violent, but we are at heightened alert we are seeing more guns,” Johnson said. “Cases that we would serve a search warrant and do a seizure where it would be hit or miss of recovering a gun — now we’re recovering a gun more frequently.”