Production

Illicit drug production in the W/B HIDTA region is limited to the conversion of powder cocaine to crack, which typically occurs in urban areas, and to occasional methamphetamine and marijuana production.

Crack cocaine conversion by retail-level distributors occurs within the W/B HIDTA region, primarily in urban areas such as Baltimore, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. Retail-level distributors typically purchase smaller quantities of powder cocaine (less than 1 kg) from midlevel suppliers in larger cities. They then take the powder cocaine to their home areas and convert it to crack cocaine, typically in residential settings. Most of the powder cocaine purchased by retail distributors is converted to crack prior to distribution within the region.

Powder methamphetamine production in the HIDTA region is very limited. The number of clandestine methamphetamine laboratories seized in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., dropped dramatically from 72 in 2005 to 26 in 2006. Of the 26 clandestine laboratories seized in 2006, only three were found in the W/B HIDTA counties--two in Montgomery County and one in Henrico County, Virginia. Additionally, one seizure of chemicals and equipment used in methamphetamine production was reported in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in 2006. Declining methamphetamine production is most likely the result of increased law enforcement pressure and legislation passed by the Virginia State Legislature at the end of 2005 restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine. Additionally, methamphetamine production in the region most likely further decreased with the 2006 enactment of the federal Combat Methamphetamine Act, which limits daily purchases of pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine; requires retailers to keep the drugs out of customers' reach; and requires purchasers to show identification and sign a logbook. Despite such efforts, the threat posed by local methamphetamine production continues in some areas of the region, particularly in Maryland and Washington, D.C., where no legislation restricting the sale and/or purchase of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and other methamphetamine precursor chemicals has been enacted.

Limited amounts of marijuana are produced within the W/B HIDTA region from cannabis cultivated at both indoor and outdoor grow sites. However, the amount of marijuana produced at indoor grow sites, especially in the Baltimore and Richmond areas, may be increasing as a result of easy access to hydroponic equipment, the sale of marijuana seeds on the Internet, and the increasing demand for high-potency marijuana. Various marijuana producers in the region, particularly Vietnamese criminal groups, are increasingly replicating methods used at sophisticated indoor grow sites in Canada, such as using elaborate hydroponic equipment, bypassing electrical meters, and using entire buildings for grow operations. Additionally, many suburban and rural areas within the region are conducive to outdoor cannabis plots because of the temperate climate and the presence of wide areas of remote or rough terrain such as deep valleys, steep and rocky hillsides, and vast wooded areas. Law enforcement officials remain cognizant of the potential for an increase in outdoor cannabis cultivation. Outdoor grows were seized in rural areas of Essex, Caroline, Powhatan, and Northumberland Counties in Virginia during 2006. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Baltimore reports that many outdoor plots in Maryland include sinsemilla, appear to have been started indoors, and generally contain fewer than 60 plants. Moreover, the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., reports that its investigations of indoor and outdoor grows typically involve Caucasian and African American traffickers.

To Top      To Contents

Transportation

Many DTOs capitalize on the extensive and diverse transportation network to transport large quantities of drugs to, through, and within the W/B HIDTA region. The interstate highway system and extensive railway system provide easy transit between drug markets in the region and domestic source areas. In particular, I-95, the major north-south transportation corridor on the East Coast, provides drug traffickers ready access to wholesale drug markets such as Atlanta, Miami, and New York City. Additionally, U.S. Highway 1 in northern Virginia and Interstates 70 and 83 in Maryland are significant drug transportation routes. Interstates 64 and 85, which link to highways transiting the Richmond area, enable traffickers to transport large quantities of drugs from the Southwest Border area to the HIDTA region. Drug traffickers can also ship drugs directly to the region through two international airports and four international seaports, including the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest container and cruise ports in the United States. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. Washington/Baltimore HIDTA transportation infrastructure.

d-link

A variety of methods are used by DTOs to transport drugs into and through the W/B HIDTA region. The most common methods are private, rental, and commercial vehicles and package delivery services, although traffickers also use couriers on commercial aircraft, airfreight services, and sea cargo shipments to transport drugs. The most innovative DTOs use multiple methods of transportation to avoid detection and increase the likelihood of successful delivery.

Law enforcement reporting indicates that drugs are increasingly transported into the W/B HIDTA region in vehicles with hidden compartments. Mexican DTOs typically use crude methods of concealment in vehicles, including hidden compartments in oil pans, car manifolds, brake drums, drive shafts, radiators, and gas tanks. Dominican DTOs often construct more sophisticated false compartments to conceal their drug shipments. Local law enforcement has identified several businesses in the region that build automotive traps for drug traffickers.

Package delivery services are increasingly being used by drug traffickers in the W/B HIDTA region, and the average size of drug shipments, particularly marijuana, sent in parcels appears to be increasing in some locations, a reversal from the trend in 2005. Many drug traffickers prefer to use package delivery services because they can monitor the shipments on the Internet. If a shipment is delayed, they assume law enforcement has intercepted the parcel, and they refuse delivery to avoid arrest. Drug traffickers routinely use relatively unsophisticated techniques to conceal drugs shipped in parcels, such as hiding them in ceramic statues, candles, bubble bath containers, coffee cans, drink bottles, blenders, cooking pots, VCRs, or computer hard drives.

Heroin is generally transported to the W/B HIDTA region by Colombian and Dominican DTOs from sources in Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; Florida; and the Caribbean Islands. Guatemalans have become involved in supplying heroin to retail distributors in the area, and West African groups are increasingly distributing large quantities of heroin that they obtain from sources in New York City to drug dealers in Baltimore. Although most of the illicit drugs transported to Baltimore are abused locally, the city also serves as a source of heroin for users in the surrounding area and throughout the state of Maryland.

Wholesale quantities of cocaine are transported to the W/B HIDTA region and supplied to local traffickers by Dominican or Colombian DTOs based in New York City. However, Mexican DTOs from the southwestern United States are becoming increasingly involved in cocaine trafficking within the region, especially in southern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Additionally, Mexican DTOs that have established transshipment centers in Atlanta and North Carolina are supplying cocaine as well as methamphetamine to the region through these centers.

Mexico is the primary source area for commercial-grade marijuana available in the W/B HIDTA region; Canada is the primary source area for high-potency marijuana. Mexican DTOs transport most of the commercial-grade marijuana available in the region from southwestern states. Additionally, Jamaican criminal groups transport some Mexican marijuana from Florida and Jamaican marijuana from the Caribbean. Vietnamese criminal groups are the principal transporters of high-potency marijuana, smuggling it from Canada into the W/B HIDTA region. Many local traffickers have developed sources in the southwest and pick up multipound quantities of marijuana or have it shipped to them.

Most of the methamphetamine available in the W/B HIDTA region is transported to the area by Mexican DTOs from Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas; however, some rural locations within the area also are occasionally supplied by outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) that receive methamphetamine from other OMGs outside the region. Asian DTOs and long-distance truck drivers also transport gram to ounce quantities of methamphetamine into the region, occasionally in tablet form from Canada. Additionally, methamphetamine abusers who are members of the region's homosexual community transport ice methamphetamine to urban areas, primarily the District of Columbia, from sources in New York City.

MDMA is transported to the region primarily by Vietnamese criminal groups that have operations in Washington, D.C., and to Baltimore from Toronto, Canada; New York; or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. PCP is transported to the W/B HIDTA region, primarily the Washington, D.C., area, from California by African American distributors and abusers traveling aboard commercial aircraft. PCP typically is concealed in various types of plastic bottles and placed in checked baggage. New York City-based traffickers often serve as brokers between the PCP distributors in the region and California sources. Additionally, some members of OMGs and abusers who frequent the club scene in the region transport PCP to the area for limited distribution from sources that they maintain in New York; Newark, New Jersey; and Philadelphia.

To Top      To Contents     To Previous Page     To Next Page

To Publications Page     To Home Page