State seizes another 17.5 tons of illegal fireworks

The Hawai‘i Department of Law Enforcement’s Illegal Fireworks Task Force seized an additional 17.5 tons of illegal fireworks Friday during a routine tariff inspection of a shipping container coming from the mainland to Hawai‘i.

This is the third shipping container to contain illegal fireworks discovered during routine tariff inspections within the past two weeks.

Officers with the task force have detained the container and will complete the seizure of the fireworks upon the execution of a search warrant.

The contents of the container were falsely declared as other items. Moreover, the fireworks were likely destined for the black market on a neighbor island.

To date, the task force has seized nearly 105,000 pounds of illegal fireworks since its inception about 5 months ago.

“The Illegal Fireworks Task Force’s objective is to prevent the introduction of illegal fireworks into our communities. We expect additional seizures of illegal fireworks to be imminent,” said Department of Law Enforcement Director Jordan Lowe.