Since the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office announced on Christmas Eve that convicted racketeering boss Michael J. Miske, Jr., appears to have died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl and para-fluorofentanyl, a related illegal opioid, I’ve been asked dozens of times for my assessment of the situation.
An “accidental” overdose would mean he meant to get high and instead got a lethal dose of the drugs.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported: “The manner of Miske’s death “is still listed as pending,” the office said in a statement. “However, based on currently available information, the manner of death in this case appears to be accidental.”
The Medical Examiner did not disclose whether there what “currently available” evidence led them to this scenario, creating a fertile environment for public speculation.
Some have publicly speculated in online comments that Miske was killed in order to prevent him from revealing damaging information about other crime figures in what they assume would be his continued bargaining with federal prosecutors. However, in Miske’s case, the time for bargaining was past. Several of the crimes he was convicted of carry a mandatory sentence of life in federal prison, removing the possibility of bargaining for a lesser sentence. That is the primary reason that I would discount this scenario.
That leaves the most likely options as the medical examiner’s explanation that it was an accidental overdose, or suicide.
The accidental overdose scenario is not wholly satisfactory, because there is no indication Mike Miske had been a user of hard drugs.
In the seven years since I started reporting on Miske, including prior court records, lawsuits, about 70 FBI affidavits filed in support of search warrants during the investigation, various motions and legal documents filed by both federal prosecutors and Miske’s defense team, as well as testimony during the six-month trial, I don’t recall any evidence that Miske himself was a user of hard drugs. Although there was some evidence that he bought (and apparently sold) cocaine in half-pound quantities several times in the late 1990s, this was before he started his first business and launched the Kamaaina family of companies.
The jury also failed to find evidence of his direct involvement in drug trafficking, finding him not guilty on that charge. Further, when asked about several drug-related predicate crimes related to the racketeering conspiracy charge, the jury found Miske had not committed any acts of drug trafficking.
And then there was the testimony of two associates, Wayne Miller, and Alfredo Cabael, to the effect that Miske was angry about their drug addiction and pressed them to get clean. Cabael told the jury he had relapsed after completing drug treatment, and only reentered a rehab program after Miske gave him “an ultimatum.”
Both knew Miske frowned on their drug use, saw it as a danger to their criminal enterprise, and punished them when it continued.
On the other hand, Miske had been confined at the Federal Detention Center since his arrest in mid-July 2020. At the time of his death, he had been under lock and key nearly 4-1/2 years, and was looking at being moved into a federal prison after sentencing, where he would spend the rest of his life.
With such a bleak outlook, and the holiday season underway in the outside world, depression and thoughts of suicide can’t be dismissed, although it is not publicly known whether investigators have found any evidence to support this possiblity.
Coming soon: Part 2, Fentanyl in federal prisons.
