Distribution

Colombian and Dominican DTOs, with bases of operation in New York City, are the principal wholesale illicit drug distributors in the W/B HIDTA region. However, Mexican organizations based in the southern and western United States are increasingly involved in drug trafficking in the region, especially in southern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Mexican traffickers who operate in southern Virginia are often based in North Carolina or have connections to organizations in North Carolina.

Vietnamese criminal groups with ties to Asian DTOs in Canada have emerged as the principal distributors of high-potency marijuana in the W/B HIDTA region, displacing Caucasian criminal groups. For instance, in 2006 a Vietnamese criminal group with connections to Canada, Florida, Texas, and Virginia was identified by Maryland law enforcement officials as the supplier of large quantities of high-potency marijuana to dealers in Harford, Baltimore, and Anne Arundel Counties, Maryland. As a result of rising Vietnamese involvement in the trafficking of high-potency marijuana in the region, an overall increase in the availability of the drug has occurred, resulting in a growing market for the drug, particularly in the more affluent areas of the region, where abusers appear willing to pay higher prices for higher-potency marijuana.

West African, Pakistani, and Middle Eastern DTOs that most likely have sources of supply in Asia distribute heroin in the W/B HIDTA region, making this one of the few areas of the country where Southeast Asian (SEA) and SWA heroin are available. Although SA heroin currently is the predominant type distributed in the region, a significant disruption in the availability of SA heroin could stretch domestic heroin supplies in eastern U.S. markets, including those in the W/B HIDTA region. West African, Pakistani, and Middle Eastern DTOs that have established transportation and distribution networks most likely would supplant any shortage of SA heroin by increasing the availability of Asian heroin in the region.

Retail drug distribution in the W/B HIDTA region often takes place in open-air drug markets in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., where crack cocaine, heroin, and other drugs are sold; these markets provide abusers within and outside the region with ready access to illicit drugs. Most open-air drug markets are located in inner-city areas and are operated by neighborhood-based African American and Hispanic gangs or crews that periodically provide customers with free samples, or "testers," of heroin and cocaine to encourage future sales. In areas where open-air drug markets do not exist, crack cocaine sales take place in low-income areas or housing projects in which young, single females provide an "address" to retail-level dealers. Law enforcement has also identified bars in the region that are operated or frequented by OMG members and used as distribution sites for methamphetamine, crack cocaine, and marijuana. Retail distribution methods outside inner-city areas of the region are evolving; many dealers make arrangements by cell phone to meet customers at designated areas.

Diverted pharmaceuticals are widely available and abused in the W/B HIDTA region and are obtained by abusers and distributors primarily through prescription forgeries and doctor-shopping. Other methods of diversion used by abusers and distributors include the use of DEA registration numbers by nonregistrants who place controlled substance orders with drug wholesalers for large quantities of drugs; pharmacy thefts; and diversion by doctors and pharmacists. Some doctors and pharmacists sell prescriptions or medications for a profit without possessing legitimate records or order controlled substances for their own use. Moreover, medical office staff members who are authorized to place orders with pharmacies for legitimate prescriptions sometimes place orders for fraudulent prescriptions, which they sell for profit, and pharmacy employees sometimes steal small amounts of medications as legitimate prescriptions are filled. Additionally, illegal distribution of prescription drugs through Internet pharmacies is an emerging problem in the HIDTA region.

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