HAWAII RIPE FOR DRUG-RING VIOLENCE

More than 100 multistate and international drug rings are operating in
Hawai'i, and law enforcement officials are wary about the violence the
groups could bring to the Islands.

Between 2004 and 2006, law enforcement officials say they identified
172 multistate and international drug operations that were actively
shipping large amounts of product into the state. Of the 172 rings
funneling drugs, law enforcement agencies say 31 were broken up and
the other 141 were disrupted but are still considered viable.

"We are working with our local, state, and federal law enforcement
partners to monitor and dismantle the Mainland and international drug
organizations operating in Hawai'i," said Janet L. Kamerman, special
agent in charge of the FBI's Honolulu division.

Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Thai and Malaysian gangs recognize that
a smaller amount of crystal methamphetamine, or "ice" will produce
twice the profit in Hawai'i as on the Mainland, federal agents say.
The gangs are also targeting Guam and Saipan, because a pound of ice
will sell there for quadruple the Mainland prices.

Groups in California and Nevada with supply lines based in Mexico are
importing crystal methamphetamine and cocaine from the West Coast.

"We recently tracked a Mexican national to the Big Island, then to
Maui where we arrested him and discovered he was running drugs for a
group out of Nashville (Tennessee)," said Larry D. Burnett, director
of the Hawai'i High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a partnership of
federal, state and county law-enforcement agencies.

"It is much, much more advanced than you actually think. A lot of our
stuff is connected to the West Coast, the Philippines, Thailand,
Mexico. ... These are not your corner drug dealers; these are
organized groups."

The concern over out-of-state rings comes even as officials are
touting a reduction in the ice problem due to aggressive law
enforcement efforts.

Four years after the battle against ice became a major statewide issue
and Hawai'i's meth problems were among the worst in the nation,
officials have said they have made a dent. Ice seizures have tapered
off, down to 179 pounds last year from 265 pounds in 2005 and 226
pounds in 2004.

Treatment for ice is also down, with 3,270 adults receiving treatment
for crystal methamphetamine addiction in fiscal year 2007, compared
with 3,363 in 2006, 3,538 in 2005, 3,136 in 2004 and 3,013 in 2003.

The drop in meth, however, has been linked to an increase in other
drug activity, with the amount of crack cocaine seized in Hawai'i this
year far surpassing totals for the previous three years.

VIOLENT CRIME RATES

Although violent crime here remains low compared to U.S. cities of
comparable size, the concern is that there could be repeats of recent
incidents associated with Mainland drug rings, which can be very violent.

In May, 27-year-old Benjamin Grajeda was gunned down in the middle of
Kane'ohe Bay Drive by members of a rival drug-trafficking group from
Alabama.

Grajeda, of North Hollywood, Calif., had been smuggling hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of cocaine and crystal methamphetamine into
the state in hollowed-out VCRs, televisions and stereo equipment.

The man arrested and charged with shooting him more than a dozen
times, Jericho Dewon Lindsey, was a known member of a Mainland crystal
methamphetamine smuggling ring working on Maui. It's specifically the
type of case that concerns law enforcement here.

"We need to ensure that the type of violence associated with these
drug organizations, like the kind we saw in the Grajeda case, does not
become commonplace in our Islands," the FBI's Kamerman said.

Lindsey was arrested and charged with two counts of murder in Alabama
in 2000 but the charges were later dismissed after witnesses recanted
their statements and a judge ruled there was not enough evidence to
proceed. Alabama police said in 2000 that the shootings had begun in a
parking lot at the corner of a U.S. highway and a city street where
more than 100 people had gathered. There were several parties along
the city street that night.

One of the victims was killed by a 9mm pistol, and three other people
were wounded at that location, according to police in Mobile, Ala. The
second victim was killed nearby with an AK-47, and the person riding
with him was wounded, according to a Mobile newspaper's report at the
time.

Recently, a detective with the Honolulu police department traveled to
Mobile in search of a third suspect wanted in connection with
Grajeda's murder.

LUCRATIVE MARKET

The Mainland drug rings are attracted to Hawai'i for the premium they
can charge for ice sold here. According to the DEA, a pound of crystal
meth sells in the western United States for $7,000 to $10,000. The
same pound could fetch as much as $15,000 to $22,000 in Hawai'i,
making the state a lucrative target market for criminal enterprises
seeking to increase drug sale profits.

Ice is sold at the street level in quarter-gram, half-gram, gram,
"teener" (1.75 grams), and "eight-ball" (3.75 grams) amounts,
according to law enforcement. In Hawai'i, a quarter-gram retails for
about $45, a half-gram costs $75 and a gram costs $100.

A quarter-gram that sells for $40 on Hawai'i streets costs roughly 70
cents to make in Asia.

A criminal justice expert here said the violence associated with the
international and Mainland rings arises from the brutal competition
for turf.

"A corporation may experience a hostile takeover; imagine how hostile
it would be if there were no laws governing the transition. That's how
drug organizations operate, through hostile takeovers. They do it
because they can," said Ronald F. Becker, an attorney and director of
the criminal justice program at Chaminade University. "Considering the
young tourist population supplementing the local market, these Islands
are a gold mine. The drug industry is unregulated capitalism in its
purist form. If there is a demand, a supply will certainly follow."

Law enforcement officials this year have broken up two high-profile
rings responsible for smuggling millions of dollars in illegal drugs
into the state.

In October, a dozen people were arrested and accused of shipping more
than $1.2 million worth of crystal methamphetamine per month from the
Philippines and California to Kaua'i.

State, county and federal law enforcement officials coordinated raids
on O'ahu, Maui, the Big Island, Kaua'i and in Sacramento, Calif., and
apprehended the suspects, who are accused of shipping 40 pounds of ice
a month.

The Kaua'i cartel shipped crystal meth from the Philippines using the
U.S. mail and human couriers who taped the drugs to their thighs and
boarded commercial flights bound for O'ahu.

In June, Honolulu police and federal agents arrested seven people on
O'ahu and in Las Vegas in coordinated raids on a suspected narcotics
cartel that allegedly shipped more than $350,000 worth of crystal
meth-amphetamine from Las Vegas to Honolulu.

Three men were arrested in Las Vegas, and four others in Pupukea and
Wahiawa after an indictment accused the group of conspiring to ship
more than 10 pounds of ice to Honolulu to sell for profit, according
to a law enforcement official and documents filed in U.S. District
Court.