PORT ORCHARD, Wash. — A Mexican super cartel brought its deadly drugs and violence to the tranquil and remote waterfront community of Port Orchard, a 90-minute ferry ride west of Seattle.
Here, the Kitsap Peninsula, billed as “the natural side of Puget Sound. ” attracts hikers, bikers, golfers and boaters — and members of a top U.S. target, the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación.
The cartel, known as CJNG, set up a meth conversion lab here years ago as part of a Western Washington drug cell that pummeled the region with millions of dollars worth of heroin, meth, cocaine and fentanyl-laced pills.
Standing near the chilly waters of the Sinclair Inlet during a recent interview, Police Chief Matt Brown described how Port Orchard’s police force of 23 is outnumbered in the struggle to safeguard the town’s nearly 17,000 residents from international drug networks and deadly fentanyl .
The situation he described contrasts with the image across the water on the opposite bank in Bremerton, home to the sprawling Puget Sound Naval Shipyard , providing maintenance and support to help assure U.S. “dominance at sea.”