Cocaine

Cocaine poses the most significant drug threat to New Mexico. Both powdered and crack cocaine continue to saturate the Albuquerque metropolitan area and other urban areas of the state. Prices and purity levels of powdered and crack cocaine have remained relatively stable throughout the state since 1999. Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups are the primary transporters of powdered cocaine from Mexico. Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups control the wholesale distribution of powdered cocaine; prison and street gangs distribute powdered cocaine at the retail level. Crack cocaine distribution is limited to the retail level. Cuban criminal groups, street gangs, and local independent dealers purchase powdered cocaine from Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups within the state and convert it to crack.

Abuse

Although there is evidence that powdered and crack cocaine abuse has decreased, it nevertheless remains a major health problem in New Mexico. According to the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), cocaine treatment admissions decreased overall from 401 in 1993 to 375 in 1998. However, a disparity in data reporting for 1998 admissions to substance abuse treatment programs occurred and resulted in underreporting. Cocaine abuse continues to challenge health care and treatment providers. In a few areas of the state, some inpatient treatment providers are overwhelmed with requests for beds. The demand for treatment is so great that one treatment facility is running only outpatient services and referring cocaine and heroin addicts to other local or out-of-state providers that have beds available.

Cocaine abuse among adolescents continues to be a concern throughout the state. According to the 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), 17.2 percent of New Mexico high school student respondents reported lifetime cocaine use. The Substance Use Among Albuquerque's Adult Population survey indicates that 17 years was the mean age of first cocaine use reported by Albuquerque resident respondents.

Cocaine abuse is also prevalent among adult male arrestees in Albuquerque. According to 2000 ADAM data, 34.8 percent of adult male arrestees in Albuquerque tested positive for cocaine. (See Table 3 in Overview section.) Among male arrestees, 43.5 percent of Hispanic, 37.4 percent of African American, and 24.2 percent of Caucasian arrestees tested positive for the drug.

To Top      To Contents

Availability

Cocaine poses the most significant drug threat to New Mexico. Powdered cocaine is widely available throughout the state, and crack is available predominantly in Albuquerque and Las Cruces. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), both powdered and crack cocaine continue to saturate the Albuquerque metropolitan area and the other urban areas of New Mexico.

The price and purity of powdered cocaine have remained stable throughout New Mexico since 1999, indicating that the supply of the drug has remained essentially unchanged. The DEA Albuquerque District Office reports that powdered cocaine prices range from $800 to $1,400 per ounce. Purity levels for powdered cocaine in Albuquerque range from 80 to 95 percent. In Las Cruces powdered cocaine prices range from $14,000 to $18,000 per kilogram and $500 to $900 per ounce. Purity levels for the drug in Las Cruces range from 29 to 77 percent.

Table 4. Cocaine Prices and Purity, Albuquerque and Las Cruces, 2001

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, El Paso Division, Quarterly Trends in the Traffic Report, 2nd Quarter FY2001.

As with powdered cocaine, the relatively stable price and purity of crack cocaine in New Mexico indicate that the availability of the drug has remained unchanged. Local law enforcement officials in Albuquerque report that the supply of crack cocaine in the city is virtually unlimited. The DEA Albuquerque District Office reports that crack cocaine is widely available in its jurisdiction. Crack cocaine prices range from $600 to $1,000 per ounce and $20 per rock. Crack cocaine is also available "doubled up"--$100 for 10 rocks that normally would have sold for $200. Crack purity levels in Albuquerque were unavailable. In Las Cruces the price of crack cocaine is approximately $900 per ounce and $20 per rock. Crack purity levels in Las Cruces range between 56 and 61 percent.

Cocaine seizure amounts at New Mexico POEs have decreased overall. USCS reports that the quantity of cocaine seized nationwide declined approximately 7 percent, falling from 160,718 pounds in FY1999 to 150,036 pounds in FY2000. The amount of cocaine seized by the USCS in New Mexico also declined during that period. In fact, the amount of cocaine seized in New Mexico has decreased substantially since FY1998. Some law enforcement officials attribute this 3-year decline to smugglers shotgunning shipments in an effort to avoid significant losses to law enforcement.

Table 5. U.S. Customs Service Drug Seizures by Port (in Pounds*), New Mexico, FY1998-FY2000

*Rounded to the nearest pound.
**Eighty-nine percent of total amount due to four seizures in the third quarter of FY1999.
Source: U.S. Customs Service.

To Top      To Contents

Violence

Much of the violence associated with cocaine in New Mexico is a result of competition for control of distribution areas. In the early 1980s Mexican DTOs began receiving cocaine from Colombian DTOs as payment for smuggling the drug. As the Mexican DTOs became the principal transporters for the Colombian DTOs, the Mexican DTOs received larger quantities of cocaine as payment in kind. At the time significant cocaine markets did not exist in Mexico, thus requiring that the Mexican DTOs move the cocaine not only on behalf of the Colombians but for themselves as well. As these Mexican DTOs and associated criminal groups moved to solidify wholesale cocaine markets in the southwestern and western United States, they came into conflict with U.S.-based Mexican and Hispanic criminal groups. Subsequent competition among these various factions, including independent dealers, has led to violent confrontations. In recent years, it appears that the major Colombian DTOs have ceded control or dominance in these markets to Mexican DTOs and associated criminal groups.

Prison and street gangs involved in the retail distribution of powdered cocaine often engage in violence to protect their turf. Street gangs, such as the 18th Street and Los Padillas gangs, who convert powdered cocaine to crack and distribute crack at the retail level also perpetrate violence as a means to defend their territory. Additionally, law enforcement officials report that Cuban criminal groups have used violence as a means to gain control of retail crack distribution in Albuquerque.

Violence associated with cocaine distribution and abuse is a serious concern in New Mexico. ADAM 2000 data for Albuquerque revealed that, of those arrested for violent crimes and tested for drug use, 35.3 percent of males tested positive for cocaine. Among females arrested for violent crimes and tested for drug use, 33.3 percent tested positive for the drug. Law enforcement officials in Albuquerque reported that most criminal activity in the city--armed robberies, vehicle thefts, burglaries, and homicides--was linked directly to distribution and abuse of drugs such as cocaine.

Production

Coca is not cultivated nor is cocaine produced in New Mexico. However, street gangs based in Albuquerque and Las Cruces convert powdered cocaine into crack.

To Top      To Contents

Transportation

Cocaine is transported to New Mexico primarily from Mexico by Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups. The Mexican DTO presenting the greatest transportation threat to New Mexico is based in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. This DTO is responsible for the movement of large shipments of cocaine to and across the U.S.-Mexico border. Historically, the El Paso-Juarez corridor, which includes Las Cruces, has been a primary route for this organization's smuggling operations. This DTO has expanded its operation toward the Gulf of Mexico in an effort to assert primacy along a greater portion of the U.S.-Mexico border. This expansion facilitates the movement of cocaine from Colombia and other South American source areas to locations throughout the United States, including New Mexico.

Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups use various modes to transport cocaine into the state, including privately owned and commercial vehicles. Multikilogram quantities of powdered cocaine often are transported across the Southwest Border concealed in false compartments in vehicles or intermingled with legitimate cargo. In an attempt to prevent thorough vehicular inspections, smugglers have been known to flood border POEs by shotgunning cocaine shipments.

The Santa Teresa POE is a prime location for Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups attempting to smuggle cocaine into the United States. It is suspected that this POE is a gateway for nighttime smuggling, since it is manned only during daylight hours. Traffickers smuggling drugs into New Mexico at the Santa Teresa POE frequently use SR-9 because it is close to the POE. Additionally, SR-9 is favored as an alternative to I-10--one of the major drug trafficking routes in New Mexico and the United States. State and local law enforcement personnel in cities along I-10--Las Cruces, Deming, and Lordsburg--conduct extensive and systematic interdiction efforts along the New Mexico portion of the interstate.

DTOs frequently use women and children as couriers to smuggle cocaine into the United States through POEs. Women and children, as well as teenagers, are used primarily because traffickers deem them less likely to be targeted by law enforcement authorities. In nearby El Paso, Texas, a prosecutor related a case involving two girls, ages 12 and 13, each carrying more than 4 pounds of cocaine in her school backpack.

Some Mexican DTOs transport cocaine by aircraft to remote locations in Mexico within 25 miles of the New Mexico-Mexico border. The aircraft typically remains on the ground for about 30 minutes while the illicit cargo is unloaded. After the cocaine is unloaded, the aircraft returns to central Mexico and the drug is prepared for smuggling into New Mexico. The Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center reports that, between January 1994 and March 1999, radar confirmed 4,396 short landings or fades just south of the New Mexico border. There continues to be a high number of low-flying aircraft reported in the boot heel area of New Mexico.

Mexican criminal groups also transport cocaine through New Mexico from other states along the Southwest Border en route to cities such as Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Kansas City, Missouri; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Interstates 10, 25, 40, and US 54 are the primary vehicular routes used to transport cocaine. According to Operation Pipeline statistics, 62 kilograms of cocaine were seized during 15 traffic stops on New Mexico highways in 2000.

To Top      To Contents

Distribution

Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups control the wholesale distribution of powdered cocaine in New Mexico. Intelligence sources report that Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups increasingly are purchasing powdered cocaine directly from organizations in Colombia. Some Mexican criminal groups often serve as wholesale distributors who work on behalf of Mexican DTOs and sell the drug to retail distributors in New Mexico. Authorities at the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) report that many Mexican criminal groups have family members based in New Mexico. These family members facilitate the distribution of cocaine smuggled into the state.

Supplied by Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups, prison and street gangs distribute powdered cocaine at the retail level. Law enforcement officials report that the New Mexico Syndicate prison gang distributes powdered cocaine at the retail level in New Mexico. Some New Mexico Syndicate members are also members of street gangs that are believed to have direct connections to Mexican criminal groups operating in Mexico and throughout the southwestern United States. New Mexico Syndicate recruits street gang members, including members of the 18th Street and Los Padillas gangs, to facilitate the retail distribution of powdered cocaine; this practice provides New Mexico Syndicate with a means to extend its influence beyond prison walls.

Crack cocaine distribution is limited to the retail level. Cuban criminal groups, street gangs, and local independent dealers purchase powdered cocaine from Mexican DTOs and Mexican criminal groups within the state and convert the drug to crack for personal use and further distribution. Cuban criminal groups, composed primarily of Cuban nationals, control the distribution of crack at the retail level in Albuquerque. The New Mexico HIDTA reports that Cuban criminal groups are expanding their distribution of crack from Albuquerque to less populated areas, such as Chavez and San Miguel Counties. Albuquerque law enforcement officials report that street gangs and local independent dealers also distribute crack at the retail level. In Las Cruces street gangs convert powdered cocaine to crack and distribute the drug in the southeastern area of the state, including Lea, Eddy, and Dona Ana Counties.

Law enforcement officers in New Mexico report that retail powdered and crack cocaine dealers use discreet sales methods. Some powdered cocaine dealers have implemented a call-and-deliver system using cell phones, pay phones, and pagers. Buyers order powdered cocaine by telephone, and dealers deliver it to an agreed upon location, reducing the likelihood of a large loss should law enforcement officers arrest a distributor. Retail-level crack dealers increasingly are using drug houses to conduct sales. 

To Top      To Contents     To Previous Page     To Next Page

To Publications Page     To Home Page