Ice arrests hit 3-year high

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Crystal methamphetamine arrests hit a three-year high in 2004 and law enforcement officials expect to match or surpass those numbers this year.

For the past decade, Hawai'i has been battling crystal methamphetamine use and the question of what to do about the problem has dogged lawmakers and law enforcement officials.

In addition to making more arrests, police and federal law enforcement agents last year uncovered more than 30 clandestine methamphetamine labs, a six-fold increase over the previous year. Deaths from crystal meth last year were on pace to hit 80, far surpassing the previous record of 62, according to the city medical examiner's office.

In 2004, Honolulu Police Department narcotics vice officers and HPD patrol officers made 708 crystal meth arrests, up from 578 in 2003. HPD seized 140 pounds of ice last year.

Also, marijuana arrests jumped slightly from 78 in 2003 to 121 last year. Police made 214 cocaine arrests, compared with 168 in 2003.

Lt. Stanley Lum of HPD's narcotics vice division said that while enforcement efforts focused on crystal meth, or "ice," the increased arrests show HPD targets all drugs.

"Significant resources target the 'ice' problem because it contributes the most to property crime, violence, domestic violence, and child endangerment," he said.

Lum attributed the rise in ice arrests to factors including better training, updated equipment, the targeting of career criminals and partnerships with federal law enforcement agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"We think that illegal drug consumption will remain near the same levels as in 2004 with (crystal) methamphetamine," he said in an e-mail. "Marijuana remains our second most serious problem, with empirical evidence showing that it is a gateway drug to methamphetamine use."

Carnegie-Mellon University criminologist Alfred Blumstein said the increase in arrests does show that HPD is confronting the issue by dedicating resources to combating the problem. From a law-enforcement standpoint, he said, increased arrests for an agency indicate success.

But more arrests also indicate that the demand for the drug remains high and may be increasing, he said.

"The basic rationale for enforcement is that it will increase the risk to the sellers and the prices will rise, driving down the market. It's not an inherently bad thing but it isn't an efficient way of cutting the demand," he said in a telephone interview from his Pittsburgh office yesterday. "The problem is what good are they doing through the enforcement effort? It's a consumption of resources. It is occupying prison cells without affecting the market."

Blumstein said the only way ultimately to control the ice problem is to educate, increase community awareness and create successful drug treatment options.

"The supply will react to meet the demand and that has been the dilemma of the drug war," he said. "Treatment and education and getting the word out that the stuff is bad for you (is the way to fight the problem). Ultimately, you have to get to the demand because of the resilience on the supply side."

Figures from last year show federal drug arrests also were up, with agencies making 435 arrests, including Mainland residents and foreign nationals.

Larry Burnett, director of the Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a partnership of federal, state and county law-enforcement agencies that counts 213 members, credited an information net that catalogs career drug offenders and high priority targets that is available to all HIDTA members as a major reason for increased arrests.

"We're going to try and make it so the risk isn't acceptable for them," Burnett said.

HPD's narcotics vice division has two 20-member teams that deal with ice complaints from the community. The division also has two other groups that are cross-deputized with federal law enforcement and work with DEA and FBI as part of HIDTA.

Drug traffickers use Hawai'i's commercial airlines and cargo shipping to import significant amounts of crystal methamphetamine every week, despite law enforcement's best efforts to interrupt the drug trade.

The drugs are packed into suitcases, coolers, packages and other forms of checked luggage. They are strapped to the bodies of couriers who board planes bound for the Islands, police said. Varying quantities of the drug, from grams to pounds, are sent via U.S. mail and through private shippers such as United Parcel Service and FedEx, police said.

A dramatic example of smuggling surfaced in October 2003 in Operation Shave Ice, a multi-agency law-enforcement investigation that broke up five ice rings in Hawai'i and led to the arrest of almost 50 people. A group hollowed out a hydraulic lift, stuffed it with drugs or money, and shipped it back and forth between Hawai'i and their Mainland supplier, said U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo.

Last month, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona released the Lingle administration's drug-control package calling for stronger deterrence and punishment against substance abuse. The plan had little new state spending.

The package would create a rapid-response unit to target drug houses and add mandatory sentences for repeat drug offenders and people who buy alcohol for minors. It also would limit the sale of over-the-counter drugs used to make crystal methamphetamine, or "ice."

Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.