Mexican drug cartels, including Sinaloa and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), are aggressively expanding into Hawaii, flooding the islands with methamphetamines and fentanyl.
Local authorities told media outlet KHON2 that Sinaloa and CJNG are expanding business in the island state by sending drugs via passengers' luggage, mailed packages, and body carriers flying into Honolulu International Airport.
"Violent cartels, primarily the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartels, and they're killing each other," explained Gary Yabuta, executive director of the Hawaii High-Density Drug Trafficking Area.
Yabuta said, "They're competing for territory and turf to make sure that their drugs get across the border and sent throughout the nation, including Hawaii."
US Attorney Clare Connors told the local media outlet that Sinaloa and CJNG are primarily behind the new push in flooding Hawaii with drugs.
"Largely, however, it is cartel interaction with local drug trafficking organizations," Connors said.
Yabuta said, "Methamphetamine is still our greatest drug threat here in Hawaii, and that has risen, too throughout the years, including 2023 drug-related deaths," adding, "However, fentanyl drug-related deaths are catching up. It's rising at a faster rate."
One of the main reasons cartels expand across the islands is the lack of competition and law enforcement.
NewsNation noted, "An oxycodone pill selling for $2 in Los Angeles can fetch $16 or more in Hawaii."
According to Families Against Fentanyl, the surge in fentanyl overdose deaths placed Hawaii number seven nationally on a list with a 27% increase in fentanyl-related deaths in 2023.
Meanwhile, these same cartels are fueling the fentanyl epidemic across the Lower 48, resulting in a US drug death catastrophe that eclipses the Vietnam War every six months.
Last week, a new report from the Financial Times revealed details about a dark Chinese money-laundering network partnering with Mexican drug cartels.
In mid-April, the House Select Committee on China revealed that the Chinese Communist Party used tax rebates to subsidize the manufacturing and exporting of fentanyl chemicals to overseas customers.
"The West Coast Coalition is comprised of law enforcement agencies from California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska," Peace Officers Research Assoc. of CA recently wrote on X.
They continued, "We can't sit here and continue to let our communities suffer."
The biggest mystery here is why the Biden administration hasn't taken a tougher stance on China while America's fentanyl epidemic is killing a generation of youth. This should be a national security threat, yet elderly Joe Biden is likely too busy eating ice cream.