Maui is not for sale. But methamphetamines are....
Meet the Meth Gang Behind ‘Lahaina Strong’
by Andrew Walden
Lahaina Strong spokesperson Paele Kiakona is filing suit for damages from the Lahaina Fire. His co-plaintiffs include two of West Maui’s biggest methamphetamines dealers.
Co-plaintiff Moses Kiakona, Paele’s father, aka Federal Inmate #95305-022, was in federal prison when Lahaina burned. He has been in and out of federal penitentiaries for multiple parole violations after his 2006 conviction and 14 year sentence as leader of a 20-lbs-per-month methamphetamines ring. Another co-plaintiff, George N ‘Opelu’ Keahi, aka Federal Inmate #91712-022, was convicted as part of the same methamphetamines ring.
Their suit is #2CCV-24-0000328, filed April 26, 2024--just 15 days after Moses Kiakona's latest release from federal prison.
Twenty pounds per month is enough to supply 5,000 Maui County meth heads with one rock every day for 30 days--but only if they ‘acquire’ something with which to pay.
Moses Kiakona has 24 state convictions going back to 1991. Ironically, according to ECrim, one of his aliases is ‘Paele Kiakona.’
A Great Leader of the Hawaiian People
Who Occasionally Sells Poison to their Children
In spite of this, Moses Kiakona likes to portray himself as a local hero – just as Lahaina Strong does today.
Kiakona’s meth arrest made the Star-Bulletin October 2, 2004:
… Mexican suppliers … supplied the drugs to Kiakona and another Maui man, named Glenn Fernandez, according to prosecutors. From there the drugs were allegedly supplied to a Sham Vierra, who according to the complaint distributed five pounds of a monthly 20-pound shipment that came from the "Mexican suppliers."
Although federal prosecutors said their investigation covers this drug-trafficking operation since October 2002, the criminal complaint states that, according to Vierra, the 20-pound shipments have been coming to Maui since November 2000.
Kubo said, "If this is true, then assuming a user consumes approximately one-sixteenth a gram, we are talking about 145,152 hits coming into the island of Maui each month."
Part of the shipment was also distributed on Lanai via ferry. Federal officials said most of the supply was sent to Maui by way of parcels shipped or mailed and not from a drug courier.
During the course of 10 search warrants executed Thursday on Maui, Operation Tap Out also seized more than $250,000 in cash, about 2 pounds of ice worth more than $60,000, and two rifles. In one house agents found stacks of cash totaling $141,782.
"As you can see, there's money in this," said Maui Police Chief Thomas Phillips. "I don't know how many of you have $140,000 laying around the house. That's what they're in this for.
"They deal grief to the community for profit."
In late 2004, as the Feds were arresting his meth gang, Kiakona was in State court facing first degree terroristic threatening charges for blocking a tourist couple from passing a one lane bridge into Honokohau Valley and then trying to ram them off the road in a miles-long chase which ended with the tourists careening into the parking lot of the Lahaina police station.
The prosecutor explained:
That's why (Kiakona’s) here in court, his own arrogance, his own attitude he says the people in the valley have because it is his turf and these tourists come over there and they cause trouble and they need to be taught a lesson. That is what this case is about. He's trying to teach these tourists a lesson.
Kiakona was convicted and sentenced to five years in state prison on November 5, 2004.
After years in federal penitentiary, Kiakona was granted parole. It didn’t last.
On July 6, 2022, Kiakona told DLNR:
Now 51 years of age and I Moses Kiakona have watch Lahaina (Mala Ramp) transform from locals to all white peoples with money exploiting Mala ramp, turned disrespectful, cause they think their in titled ….
Then on February 19, 2023, Moses Kiakona allegedly broke into a homeless person’s tent at Mala Wharf and beat him up, allegedly calling him a ‘pink bitch’ who ‘didn’t belong here.’
That got Kiakona violated and sent back to Federal Penitentiary. He is now being tried for Burglary 1 and Assault 2 in state court. Case#2CPC-23-0000208.
After the fire, Kiakona applied for compassionate release from federal prison with Paele chiming in. He was denied.
Like Father Like Son
Paele Kiakona’s plan is to seize other people’s vacation rentals and move in to them. He tells reporters, "we are fighting for our home, fighting to simply exist, and to make sure that our people remain here." He tells tourists: “We made our plea. You decided not to listen. The blood is on your hands.”
Sound familiar?
Unlike his father, Paele Kiakona doesn’t have a criminal record, but between 2015 and 2020 he did rack up four traffic tickets, all in the Puna District of the Big Island. Paele graduated from the Big Island Kamehameha School in 2013.
We asked Paele if he thinks his father's background as a methamphetamines dealer helps him gain credibility in Lahaina advocacy. Will update if a response is received.
Moses Kiakona and George N Keahi aren’t the only criminals lurking around Lahaina Strong. Through interlocking boards of directors, a Hawaii tradition, the group is also connected to two newly elected Legislators, a Maui Councilmember, and repeat campaign spending convict Mark Kaniela Saito Ing.
Paele Kiakona is a county-registered lobbyist representing “Our Hawaii Action/Lahaina Strong”. A list of Maui-registered “Our Hawaii Action/Lahaina Strong” lobbyists includes:
- Paele Kiakona
- Jordan Ruidas
- Katie Austin
- Lauryn Rego
- Courtney-Lee Lazo
State registration for Super PAC “Our Hawaii Action” lobbyists reveals the same names and their pay:
- Paele Kiakona --$6,000.00
- Jordan Ruidas --$6,000.00
- Lauryn Rego --$7,200.00
- Courtney-Lee Lazo --$6,000.00
ProPublica’s nonprofit explorer reveals ‘Our Hawaii Action’ Board of Directors to include:
- Ikaika Hussey-Director
- Evan Weber- Treasurer (salary $40,032)
- Nadine Ortega-President
- Kaniela Ing-Secretary
- Alani Bagcal –Director
Hussey, who also serves as Vice President of Gary Hooser’s Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA), just won the Democratic Primary for HD29 Kalihi. Other HAPA board members include Kim Coco Iwamoto, who just beat House Speaker Saiki for the HD26 nomination, Maui Council member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, a close ally of Lahaina Strong, and Molokai grifter/activist Walter Ritte.
‘Our Hawaii Action’ was the focus of a September 18, 2023, Civil Beat article, “This Hawaii Super PAC says it’s raising money for wildfire victims—and Political Candidates Too.”
A ‘progressive’ political organization is taking advantage of the Maui wildfires to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars that may go to support political candidates instead of direct help for victims of the Aug. 8 fires.
Our Hawaii Action, which is led by former Maui Rep. Kaniela Ing and community organizer Evan Weber, has raised at least $684,000 through the newly created Maui Community Power Recovery Fund….
Weber noted the PAC would also be creating “dark money” 501(c)4 groups that aren’t required to disclose donors. The dark money groups would help progressives gain footing in Hawaii, he said at the time.
Nate Chee, supervisor for the attorney general’s tax and charities division, said the department is examining the situation….
On Aug. 28, Ing pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge for missing a deadline for a campaign funding report. He was previously fined $15,000 in 2018 for using campaign funds for personal expenses….
A few days before his plea before the Campaign Spending Commission, Ing appeared on PBS NewsHour and made a national pitch for donors for the Maui fund….
Later on in a discussion about impacts to residents and ongoing relief efforts, Ing encouraged viewers to donate to the site mauirecoveryfund.org to support “not just for the short term, but in the long term, knowing it’s going to take $6 billion minimally to rebuild.”
The Maui Community Power Recovery Fund and the domain names mauirecovery.org and mauijustrecovery.org were all set up after the August wildfires by Our Hawaii Action….
But mauirecovery.org actually links to the Maui Community Power Recovery Fund’s donation page benefiting Our Hawaii Action….
Billionaire Globalists Behind Lahaina Strong
The “Supporting Recovery from the Maui Wildfires” page on the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors website links to ‘Maui Just Recovery Fund’ which actually links to actblue.com/donate/maui-community-power-recovery-fund and, as of August 28, 2024, reads: “This fundraiser is not currently accepting any donations…. Fundraiser: Organizing Resilience, a project by Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc.”
InfluenceWatch.org explains:
Organizing Resilience is an effort within the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, an ideologically motivated donor-advised fund provider associated with Amalgamated Bank, a financial institution associated with the Service Employees International Union’s Workers United division, that coordinates national and local networks to allow left-of-center organizations, government officials, and philanthropists to change the way in which they respond to humanitarian and political crises following natural disasters. 1 2
The network focuses its efforts on the American South, 3 supports left-of-center political and structural change, 4 and works to advance these policies in post-disaster situations. 5 6
Organizing Resilience has received at least $2,100,000 from the left-of-center Ford Foundation since 2021 through grants to Amalgamated Charitable Foundation. 7 8 9 Its core partners include liberal financier George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group, the Canary Coalition, Grove Foundation, and Way to Rise. 10
They didn’t mention meth gangs.
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