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“I will go after drug dealers, close down drug houses with nuisance abatement law, dismantle the financial structure of a drug organization with an asset forfeiture law.”

Those were some of the promises made by Honolulu city prosecutor candidate Keith Kaneshiro in a posted on the KHON 2 website.

We’re not questioning whether Kaneshiro will actually use these laws. But on the video, if you watch it, you’ll see that he gives the impression that the use of the laws would be something new for the Honolulu City Prosecutor’s Office.

But is this the case?

It was, when Kaneshiro was the prosecutor from 1989-1996, according to campaign spokesman Tony Nikae. “He financed the International Drug Program in the office with funds seized through the use of the asset forfeiture law,” Nikae said.

As it turns out, prosecutors are still using these tactics today.

“We have been using asset forfeiture in one way or another since 1987 or 1989,” said Charlotte Duarte, the attorney who handles asset forfeitures full-time for the prosecutor’s office. “We have found it to be one of the most effective law enforcement tools available to us right now.”

As an example, Duarte said she recently used asset forfeiture in a case on the Big Island. A criminal was using proceeds from a marijuana grow house to buy properties on Oahu. By employing asset forfeiture, they were able to seize the man’s properties on both the Big Island and Oahu and permanently shut him down.

“Whenever you have a drug operation, you have two parts to it – one is the drugs but the other part is the assets. And that’s what makes asset forfeiture so valuable as a law enforcement tool,” Duarte said. “The reason they do the drugs is to acquire the assets. By denying them the reward of their efforts, you shut down the whole purpose of the operation.”

Duarte did say that there’s room for more asset forfeiture work in her office, resources permitting. In fiscal year 2009, she estimated that she alone prosecuted at least 150 cases involving asset forfeiture. She also said that the city collected $1.3 million in property and currency during that time.

“I think it has always been the problem that we have too much work and not enough resources,” Duarte said. “It would be ideal – if we could manage it financially… if we had more than one attorney assigned to asset forfeiture with the appropriate support staff.”

As for using the nuisance abatement law, prosecutor spokesman Jim Fulton echoed a similar story.

“We’ve been doing that for years,” he said.

According to a published by the in 2006, the nuisance abatement law “authorizes the Attorney General, the Prosecuting Attorney of the respective counties, or any citizen of the State to file a civil lawsuit to abate a nuisance. The law must be utilized to abate public and private nuisances that exist in any building, premises, or place used for the purpose of violating laws pertaining to prostitution, pornography, and the distribution and manufacture of drugs.”

The report goes to say that “Specifically, the law authorizes courts to permanently enjoin individuals, who are causing, maintaining, aiding, abetting, or permitting a drug nuisance, from entering or residing in the building, premises, or place where they are causing, maintaining, aiding, abetting, or permitting a drug nuisance to exist.”

Between 2003 and 2007, the Department of the Attorney General received more than 1,192 community complaints relating to illegal drug activities and drug houses.

While Kaneshiro implies on the video that using these laws would be a fresh strategy to fight drugs, it’s clear their use is anything but new.