Drug-Related Crime

Mexican DTOs and their affiliates are more sophisticated and significantly more violent than they had been in the past. Enforcement arms of these DTOs have shot and injured law enforcement officers, rival DTO members, and gang members on both sides of the border. These traffickers vigorously protect drug shipments and will confront law enforcement officers directly or engage in high-speed chases to avoid arrest and interdiction.

High levels of violent crimes and property crimes within the Los Angeles HIDTA region are associated with the production, distribution, and abuse of illicit drugs in the region by law enforcement officials. A large percentage of drug-related violence that occurs in the region is reportedly committed by street and prison gang members; violent criminal acts perpetrated by such gang members include assault, homicide, robbery, theft, weapons trafficking, and witness intimidation. Gang-related violence, particularly homicides, in metropolitan areas has significantly increased since 2002. According to law enforcement officials, this increase is directly related to gang battles for drug distribution territories and the control of illicit drug distribution within and outside the region. In addition, illicit drug producers (including methamphetamine producers, cannabis cultivators, and PCP producers) are committing an increasing number of violent crimes to protect their operations from law enforcement detection and competitors. Moreover, abusers of illicit drugs often commit property crime and identity theft to acquire money for use in purchasing illicit drugs. For instance, methamphetamine abusers commit a significant portion of the identity theft in the Los Angeles HIDTA region. The Federal Trade Commission ranked California third in the number of identity theft victims per 100,000 population in 2006; a large number of victims (5,536 of 41,396) resided in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan statistical area, home to a large number of methamphetamine abusers.

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