ARCHIVED Skip nagivation.To Contents     To Next Page     To Publications Page     To Home Page
To Home Page. National Drug Intelligence Center
Nevada High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis
June 2007

Strategic Drug Threat Developments

  • The trafficking and abuse of methamphetamine pose the most significant drug problem in the Nevada HIDTA region. Additionally, methamphetamine trafficking and abuse are the leading contributors to property crime and violent crime in the region.
      
  • HIDTA officials report that indoor cannabis cultivation and high-potency marijuana production appear to be increasing in the Nevada HIDTA region. Most illegal indoor grows range from 30 to 100 plants and are located in residential neighborhoods and rural areas. Additionally, some marijuana traffickers are exploiting Nevada's medicinal marijuana laws in an attempt to justify illegal indoor cannabis cultivation.
      
  • The abuse of diverted pharmaceuticals has increased within the Nevada HIDTA region, contributing to a rise in accidental drug overdoses. More drug-related deaths are attributed to diverted pharmaceuticals in Clark County than to any other illicit drug.
      
  • Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are using more sophisticated compartments in private and commercial vehicles to transport drugs and bulk cash proceeds to and through the HIDTA region

Drug Trafficking Organizations, Criminal Groups, and Gangs

Drug trafficking organizations are complex organizations with highly defined command-and-control structures that produce, transport, and/or distribute large quantities of one or more illicit drugs.

Criminal groups operating in the United States are numerous and range from small to moderately sized, loosely knit groups that distribute one or more drugs at the retail and midlevels.

Gangs are defined by the National Alliance of Gang Investigators’ Associations as groups or associations of three or more persons with a common identifying sign, symbol, or name, the members of which individually or collectively engage in criminal activity that creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

To Top      To Contents

 

HIDTA Overview

The Nevada HIDTA region consists of Clark and Washoe Counties. Las Vegas (Clark County) and Reno (Washoe County) are the two largest metropolitan areas in the HIDTA region; they serve as distribution centers for illicit drugs supplied to markets throughout the HIDTA region and other areas of the United States. Clark County is located less than 300 miles from Los Angeles, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, and less than 400 miles from several official U.S. ports of entry (POEs) along the Southwest Border, including Douglas and Nogales in Arizona and Calexico, Otay Mesa, and San Ysidro in California. Washoe County, added to the Nevada HIDTA's area of responsibility in late 2006, is located on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and is less than 200 miles from San Francisco, California.

Clark County is geographically large (7,910 square miles) and is transected by Interstate 15--a roadway often used by traffickers to transport illicit drugs from Los Angeles and southern California to Las Vegas--which connects to Interstates 70 and 80, major east-west corridors. U.S. Highways 93 and 95 provide traffickers with additional routes to Las Vegas from drug markets in the Phoenix area and the Nogales and Douglas POEs.

Clark County's population is rapidly expanding, a situation that provides drug traffickers with many opportunities to establish trafficking cells in changing and developing communities. The population of Clark County increased 36 percent from nearly 1.4 million in 2000 to an estimated 1.9 million in 2006. More than 70 percent of Nevada's population resides in Clark County. The population growth in the county is due largely to a growth in its Hispanic population. Since 1990, the Hispanic population increased four times faster than the non-Hispanic population. Approximately 26 percent of the population in Clark County is Hispanic, the region's largest minority group. The growing Hispanic population enables Mexican DTOs to blend easily into Clark County's communities, expand their drug trafficking activities, recruit new members, and reduce their risk of law enforcement detection.

Washoe County covers an area of 6,600 square miles in the northwestern section of Nevada; the county borders California and Oregon. Major roadways that transit Washoe County include I-80, which passes through Reno and connects the county with San Francisco to the west and major metropolitan areas, such as Salt Lake City, Utah; Denver, Colorado; and Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, to the east. Traffickers use I-80 to supply most of the illicit drugs available in the county. US 395 transits Washoe County north and south, intersecting I-80 in Reno. US 395 begins at the U.S.-Canada border on the eastern side of Washington and extends to the Mojave Desert at I-15. Traffickers use US 395 to move drugs from California into the region through Reno and Carson City, Nevada.

The population of Washoe County increased 20 percent from nearly 340,000 in 2000 to an estimated 409,000 in 2006. Steady growth in the Washoe County Hispanic population, including a significant influx of illegal immigrants, has been targeted and exploited by Mexican DTOs to expand their operations in the area. Approximately 19 percent of the population in Washoe County is Hispanic, accounting for the region's largest minority group.

The gaming and entertainment industry attracts over 40 million visitors to the Nevada HIDTA region annually; drug traffickers exploit the large volume of tourists as cover for illicit drug transportation and distribution operations. Traffickers typically move illicit drugs to or through the region by modes of transportation commonly used by tourists, such as personal and commercial vehicles and aircraft. Moreover, the nature of the 24-hour lifestyle in the gaming and entertainment industry quite likely attracts some visitors who may be vulnerable to drug abuse, thus compounding local drug distribution problems in the region. Additionally, the high volume of cash transactions occurring in the local gaming and entertainment industry provides opportunities for drug traffickers to mix their illicit funds with gaming proceeds in an attempt to mask the origin of such funds.

To Top      To Contents     To Next Page

To Publications Page     To Home Page

End of page.