HIDTA Overview

The Ohio HIDTA region consists of Cuyahoga, Lucas, Mahoning, Stark, and Summit Counties in northern Ohio and Fairfield, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Montgomery, and Warren Counties in southern Ohio. These counties comprise more than half of Ohio's population and encompass the nine largest cities in the state. The Ohio HIDTA region is located midway between Chicago and New York City, two of the largest drug distribution centers in the country. The region is linked by numerous interstate highways to major domestic drug source areas, including those near the Southwest Border. In fact, each HIDTA county includes or borders major transportation routes that are used by drug traffickers to smuggle illicit drugs into and through the HIDTA region. Large quantities of these illicit drugs are seized through Ohio HIDTA initiatives. (See Table 1.) Mexican and, to a much lesser extent, Dominican and Jamaican DTOs are the predominant transporters of illicit drugs that are delivered to or pass through the area. Large amounts of the drugs transported to the Ohio HIDTA region are abused locally; however, the region serves as a major transit area for illicit drugs supplied to drug markets in the eastern United States. Additionally, Mexican DTOs are expanding wholesale and midlevel cocaine, heroin, and marijuana distribution operations in the HIDTA region as well as in neighboring jurisdictions.

Table 1. Quantities of Illicit Drugs Seized Through Ohio HIDTA Initiatives in 2006

Source: Ohio High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

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