Posted on: Friday, December 21, 2001

Raids bust heroin ring from Mexico

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

Big Island Police and US Customs Agents lead 10 suspects at Hilo Airport to a National Guard helicopter headed for Honolulu. The suspects were arrested during "Operation Island Pipeline." Tim Wright • Special to The Honolulu Advertiser

HILO, Hawai'i — Law enforcement officials conducted 17 simultaneous drug raids on O'ahu and the Big Island yesterday to conclude a 13-month investigation into heroin trafficking from Mexico.

At least 16 people were expected to be arrested, officials said during a press conference in Hilo. They are due to appear today in U.S. District Court on a various drug and money laundering charges.

Information on the suspects and details of the charges were not available yesterday as the search warrants and indictments in what has been dubbed Operation Island Pipeline remained sealed. Those arrested include Hawai'i residents and Mexican nationals who are in the country illegally, officials said.

"We have totally dismantled this organization," said Lt. Henry Tavares of the Hawai'i County Police Department's vice squad. "There will be a lot of addicts looking for methadone soon or seeking out their doctors for help."

Big Island police during the summer reported an alarming rise in arrests and drug seizures involving black-tar heroin and crystal methamphetamine, noting a corresponding escalation in violence. Police department statistics show a tenfold increase in the number of people arrested for heroin possession from 1997 to 2000. Crystal meth arrests were up 431 percent during the same period.

Police said heroin and crystal methamphetamine had overtaken cocaine and marijuana as the county's top drug-enforcement concerns, and that some drug users had begun combining heroin and "ice" to ease the effects of coming off a crystal meth high.

Operation Island Pipeline targeted first-level distributors. Officials yesterday displayed photos of the suspected ring leaders in Mexico, but would not name them. Whether the alleged kingpins are extradited to the United States for prosecution ultimately will be up to Mexican government officials, they said.

Over the course of the Hawai'i investigation, 20 pounds of black-tar heroin and $166,000 in cash were seized, along with smaller amounts of cocaine and marijuana, said Mike Cox, supervisory special agent for Hawai'i for the U.S. Customs Service. He said that represents only a small fraction of the $2 million worth of heroin the drug ring distributed annually during the four years it was in operation here.

Since the investigation was launched Thanksgiving weekend 2000, 18 people had been arrested prior to yesterday's raids. Some of the suspects in the earlier cases already have been deported, Cox said.

A dozen federal, state and county agencies were involved in the investigation, including the Customs Service, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. attorney and all four county police departments.

Tavares credited Big Island police detective Marshall Kanehailua with a major breakthrough in the case through his arrest of a suspect in March who provided valuable information to move the investigation forward.

Yesterday's dawn raids were conducted at 10 residences in East Hawai'i, two in Kona and five on Windward O'ahu. Fifteen firearms were seized at one of the O'ahu homes.

Big Island suspects were rounded up and taken to the Hawai'i National Guard Armory in Hilo and later flown by military helicopters to O'ahu and transferred to the federal detention facility in Honolulu.

Cox said the Mexican ring members brought the heroin into the United States on foot and by vehicle through the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing in California. The heroin was then hidden in waist belts worn by drug couriers who flew from Los Angeles to Honolulu and on to Hilo on interisland flights.

The heroin was taken to rented homes in Volcano, Mountain View and Kea'au in the Puna District, where it was processed for statewide distribution, he said.

Profits from drug sales were sent back to Mexico via Western Union in amounts usually less than $1,000 to avoid detection, Cox said. Any transfer of more than $3,000 has to be registered with the IRS.

Tavares said local accomplices leased homes, rented cars and carried the heroin from island to island. He said the alleged drug ring chose the rural Puna District because it is isolated and quiet, and newcomers do not readily stand out.

"These people do not want to attract attention. They drive their fancy cars in Mexico," Cox said.

Containers holding the drugs were wrapped in black electrical tape and stashed among yard plants.