President Trump issues executive order classifying illicit fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction

President Donald Trump issued an executive order classifying illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as a Weapon of Mass Destruction.

Hawai’i Island Police Capt. Edwin Buyten was not surprised by the classification.

“I definitely think fentanyl is extremely dangerous,” Buyten said.

The order, which was issued Dec. 15, said: “The manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders.

“The production and sale of fentanyl by Foreign Terrorist Organizations and cartels fund these entities’ operations — which include assassinations, terrorist acts, and insurgencies around the world — and allow these entities to erode our domestic security and the well-being of our Nation.”

Buyten was hopeful the new designation would be beneficial in battling fentanyl distribution and use on the Big Island, saying: “More resources, more money, more equipment? That would all be great.”

Buyten has been leading the police department’s vice section for the past four years in the fight to get illicit fentanyl out of communities on Hawai‘i Island. He said the efforts have been impactful from 2021 to 2024, with Hawai‘i Island police responsible for recovering 60% of fentanyl in the state.

“It’s my job to gather the intelligence to seize and stop it,” Buyten said of fentanyl investigations on Hawai‘i Island. “How it’s prosecuted is up to the AG or prosecuting attorney’s office.”

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid typically used to treat patients with chronic severe pain or severe pain following surgery, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration website. Fentanyl is a Schedule II controlled substance, which is charged as a felony.

“Illicit fentanyl, primarily manufactured in foreign clandestine labs and smuggled into the United States through Mexico, is being distributed across the country and sold on the illegal drug market,” the DEA website stated. “Fentanyl is being mixed in with other illicit drugs to increase the potency of the drug, sold as powders and nasal sprays, and increasingly pressed into pills made to look like legitimate prescription opioids.”

Illicit fentanyl is considered a Schedule I drug, also charged as a felony.

The police department releases data monthly on the number of fentanyl arrests and drug recoveries. The largest number of fentanyl-related arrests on Hawai‘i Island was made in November, with nine people taken into custody.

Previous reports indicate that the most illicit fentanyl was recovered in March, totalling 635.97 grams. The largest amount of fentanyl pills recovered this year occurred in July, with 500 pills confiscated.

Just two milligrams of illicit fentanyl, equal to a couple grains of salt, is a lethal dose, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. The 3.18 total grams of illicit fentanyl recovered by police in January were enough to kill 1,905 Hawai‘i Island residents.

Buyten confirmed there are open and active investigations related to the synthetic drug.

According to the executive order, the heads of relevant executive departments and agencies “shall take appropriate action to implement this order and eliminate the threat of illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals to the United States, including the attorney general immediately pursuing investigations and prosecutions into fentanyl trafficking, including through criminal charges as appropriate, sentencing enhancements, and sentencing variances.”

Gary Yabuta, director for Hawai‘i’s High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Agency, said the executive order is beyond the scope of domestic law enforcement traffic interdiction.

“With this executive order, you’re talking about DEA, CIA operatives and intelligence gathering that we won’t have access to on a domestic level,” Yabuta said. “However, there were parts of the executive order that we’re already doing. We put fentanyl crimes as our number one priority. We want to maximize sentencing and swift prosecution.”

With this designation of weapons of mass destruction, Yabuta doesn’t know what the operational plan is on the federal level or if Hawai‘i will be privy to it.