Drug Trafficking Organizations

Strategic Findings

• Mexican DTOs and criminal groups are the most influential and pervasive threats with respect to drug transportation and wholesale distribution in nearly every region of the country and continue to increase their involvement in the production, transportation, and distribution of most major illicit drugs.
• Asian criminal groups have emerged in the United States as the primary transporters and distributors of MDMA and Canada-produced high potency marijuana.

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Drug trafficking organizations and criminal groups operating in the United States are numerous and range from small, loosely knit groups that distribute one or more drugs at the retail level to complex, international organizations with highly defined command and control structures that produce, transport, and distribute large quantities of one or more illicit drugs. Among these groups, Mexican organizations are the most widespread and influential traffickers of illicit drugs in the country. Colombian DTOs maintain significant control over South American heroin and cocaine smuggling and distribution in the eastern United States, although their role has diminished as that of Mexican groups has expanded. Asian criminal groups are not as structured as Mexican and Colombian organizations; however, they have established networks throughout the United States and have emerged as significant distributors of MDMA and Canada-produced high potency marijuana. Numerous other DTOs and criminal groups are active in the United States, although in most cases their influence and control are limited to particular regions. (See Table 8 for an extensive list of drug trafficking and criminal groups active in each region of the United States.)

Mexican DTO dominance over domestic drug trafficking is expanding: Mexican DTOs have emerged as the primary drug traffickers in almost every region of the country. They use their well-established overland transportation networks to transport cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin--Mexican and increasingly South American--to drug markets throughout the country. Mexican DTOs maintain long-established strongholds over drug trafficking activities in the Southwest, Pacific, Great Lakes, and West Central Regions of the country and at the same time are increasing their influence in every other region of the country, where their involvement was less pronounced in the past, particularly in the eastern United States. The expanding influence of Mexican DTOs has placed them well to respond to several significant developments in recent years. In particular, when the availability of locally produced methamphetamine decreased significantly in the United States, the supply of the drug was virtually uninterrupted, as Mexican DTOs almost immediately increased the supply of Mexico-produced methamphetamine to the United States. Some Mexican DTOs and criminal groups have begun producing marijuana with higher THC levels than in the past in direct response to increasing demand in markets throughout the country for high potency marijuana. Moreover, Mexican drug traffickers have experienced at least limited success in increasing the availability of Mexican heroin in the eastern United States, a venture attempted many times in the past but historically with little success.

Colombian DTOs are relinquishing some direct control over cocaine and heroin smuggling and distribution: Colombian DTOs, which are most active in the northeastern United States, maintain control of the highest levels of importation and distribution of cocaine and South American heroin to that area. However, Colombian DTOs continue to cede transportation and lower-level distribution to Dominican criminal groups--significant DTOs in their own right--and, increasingly, Mexican DTOs in an effort to insulate themselves from law enforcement. Colombian DTOs contract with Mexican and Dominican DTOs to transport large quantities of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana to the northeastern United States. Colombian DTOs maintain a significant presence in the Southeast Region as well, particularly in South Florida. Many Colombian DTOs use the area as a base of operations from which they maintain control of the highest levels of cocaine and South American heroin importation and distribution. As in the Northeast, Colombian DTOs in the Southeast insulate themselves from law enforcement and either contract or outright sell drugs to other criminal groups, which in turn transport the drugs to and distribute them in the United States. Colombian DTOs are active in other regions of the country, including the Great Lakes, Pacific, and Southwest Regions; however, their influence and control is overshadowed by Mexican DTOs, and their role primarily is one of a source of supply.

Asian DTOs are increasing their control over MDMA and marijuana distribution: The influence and breadth of Asian criminal groups, particularly Vietnamese but also Chinese and Korean groups, are expanding to regions throughout the country. Asian criminal groups are active in every region of the country but are most active in metropolitan areas with large Asian populations, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, and Houston. Canada-based Asian criminal groups appear to have emerged as the primary transporters and wholesale distributors of MDMA and increasingly transport and distribute large quantities of high potency marijuana produced in Canada, largely supplanting Israeli MDMA distributors and Caucasian marijuana distributors as the primary traffickers. Also, law enforcement reporting indicates that Asian criminal groups increasingly cultivate cannabis and produce high potency marijuana in the United States and that some are involved in cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine distribution, although on a much smaller scale than they are involved in MDMA and marijuana distribution. Asian criminal groups, tight-knit networks that typically conduct drug transactions with individuals of similar ethnicity, are difficult to infiltrate.

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