08-13-2025, 04:30 PM
Story from 7/15, West Hawaii Today: https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2025/07/...rs-debate/
"The Hawaii National Guard confirmed to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that 30 Hawaii guardsmen, members of a Hilo-based helicopter unit, are deployed to California as part of Task Force Sentinel, a military operation providing air support to the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies. They’re slated to return to Hawaii sometime after the summer."
The article says that most meth coming to Hawaii is smuggled across southern border first. So, one would expect the amount of meth on the streets of Hilo has decreased?
Fentanyl, otoh, apparently doesn't come via mules across the border:
"...Most fentanyl is believed to come into the country through legal ports of entry, while cocaine is often moved in boats making their way through the Eastern Pacific or the Caribbean, frequently with the active participation of American citizens. Tokuda said “the majority of fentanyl coming into our country is not on the backs of migrants crawling through the water and smuggling themselves over the borders undetected.”
Tokuda argued that the high tempo of ICE raids is pushing authorities to make try to quotas and target nonviolent immigrants with no ties to criminal groups, taking away resources from efforts to investigate and track down highly organized networks and career criminals who have learned to evade authorities.
“This is not about fentanyl,” said Tokuda. “This is just about getting a number, a quota, in terms of how many people they want to deport using ICE and using our military personnel. They should be focused on fentanyl, but this is not what they are doing right now that we see in every state in this country.”
"The Hawaii National Guard confirmed to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that 30 Hawaii guardsmen, members of a Hilo-based helicopter unit, are deployed to California as part of Task Force Sentinel, a military operation providing air support to the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies. They’re slated to return to Hawaii sometime after the summer."
The article says that most meth coming to Hawaii is smuggled across southern border first. So, one would expect the amount of meth on the streets of Hilo has decreased?
Fentanyl, otoh, apparently doesn't come via mules across the border:
"...Most fentanyl is believed to come into the country through legal ports of entry, while cocaine is often moved in boats making their way through the Eastern Pacific or the Caribbean, frequently with the active participation of American citizens. Tokuda said “the majority of fentanyl coming into our country is not on the backs of migrants crawling through the water and smuggling themselves over the borders undetected.”
Tokuda argued that the high tempo of ICE raids is pushing authorities to make try to quotas and target nonviolent immigrants with no ties to criminal groups, taking away resources from efforts to investigate and track down highly organized networks and career criminals who have learned to evade authorities.
“This is not about fentanyl,” said Tokuda. “This is just about getting a number, a quota, in terms of how many people they want to deport using ICE and using our military personnel. They should be focused on fentanyl, but this is not what they are doing right now that we see in every state in this country.”