Police officials say illegal drug activity on Kaua’i is not not limited to the North Shore but is harder to crack there. Melvin Morris, Kaua’i County Police Department’s chief investigator, was asked by the county’s Police Commission to talk about
Police officials say illegal drug activity on Kaua’i is not not limited to the North Shore but is harder to crack there.
Melvin Morris, Kaua’i County Police Department’s chief investigator, was asked by the county’s Police Commission to talk about a perceived “drug problem” in Hanalei.
“The North Shore has illegal drug activity, same as the South Shore and the West Side,” and is related to population density, Morris said at the commission’s April 20 meeting.
Lihu’e and Kapa’a are the areas with the highest densities “and are also the highest-arrest areas,” he said.
Morris explained that undercover drug operations are more successful in the Lihu’e and Kapa’a areas because of the transient natures of some of the neighborhoods there.
“Undercover operations are more difficult to do up there on the North Shore. People stand out who are not from the area. Officers can be identified more readily,” Morris said.
The veteran detective also speculated on why questions about drug use on the North Shore keep coming up.
“There may be more conservative residents on the North Shore, people less likely to get involved” with police, he said. “All drug cases need really good, solid investigations. It’s a problem on the North Shore, getting in there to make a case. It is necessary for us to make a buy before a search warrant can be issued. Just the mere knowledge that a person sells is not enough.”
Officers “share the public’s frustration,” said police chief George Freitas. “We know, too, who is dealing. Small dealers are dealing only with people they know.”
Prosecuting Attorney Mike Soong has said repeatedly in the past year that drug use among the island’s youth, particularly involving methamphetamine, is behind at least 80 percent of the crimes on Kaua’i.
For the first time, meth labs are now being uncovered here, according to Soong. For years, the drug was brought in from Oahu.
The latest arrest statistics via vice officers bear out Soong’s contentions. In 1999, Kaua’i Police executed 59 search warrants on drug cases and made 121 drug arrests. Last year, those numbers jumped to 119 search warrants and 188 arrests.
“There is drug activity is every Kaua’i community,” Morris reiterated.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
