Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• The Los Angeles HIDTA region is the most significant illicit drug distribution center in the United States--Los Angeles is the only U.S. city that serves as a national-level drug distribution center for all four major drugs of abuse--cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine, as well as for the distribution of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine also known as ecstasy) and PCP (phencyclidine).
   
• Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and criminal groups based in the Los Angeles HIDTA region are increasing their control over illicit drug distribution in many drug markets, most recently in East Coast drug markets that have long been controlled by other trafficking groups, which further enhances the Los Angeles HIDTA's role as a national-level drug distribution center.
   
• The Los Angeles HIDTA region is a national-level source area for domestically produced methamphetamine. Although production levels have been declining, quantities sufficient for national-level distribution continue to be produced in the region. Despite decreased production levels, law enforcement officials in the Los Angeles HIDTA region continue to spend a significant and increasing amount of public funds yearly on remediation of methamphetamine production sites. Mexican methamphetamine producers are producing more methamphetamine with greater frequency at each site than they had in the past, and these producers take extreme precautions to avoid apprehension, including setting laboratories on fire and burying methamphetamine production wastes.
   
• Several East Coast-based Jamaican DTOs and criminal groups have formed alliances with Mexican DTOs in the Los Angeles HIDTA region to purchase wholesale quantities of marijuana for distribution in northeastern and southeastern drug markets.
   
• Los Angeles-based street gangs have increased the distribution of illicit drugs to markets throughout the country, an increase that is made possible by the alliances many have formed with Mexican DTOs and criminal groups. The spread of some Los Angeles street gangs into other cities has expanded the gangs' criminal influence and drug distribution networks across the country.

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HIDTA Overview

The Los Angeles HIDTA region encompasses the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino and has over 16.8 million residents¹ in over 32,000 square miles of territory. The region is one of the nation's principal illicit drug production and distribution centers, primarily because of its proximity to the California-Mexico border, sizable Mexican population, elaborate multimodal transportation infrastructure, and expansive rural areas. Orange and Riverside Counties--to the two HIDTA counties closest to the California-Mexico border--are located less than 90 miles from the border. The HIDTA region also has one of the largest Hispanic (primarily Mexican) populations in the United States, a situation that enables Mexican DTOs and criminal groups to mask large-scale drug smuggling operations. The region's well-developed transportation infrastructure--which includes major interstate highways (Interstates 5, 10, 15, and 40), one of the largest maritime port complexes in the world, several international airports, and interstate bus and rail services--facilitates the movement of licit and illicit goods between the HIDTA region and foreign source areas, particularly Mexico. The infrastructure also facilitates the movement of illicit drug shipments from the HIDTA region to drug markets throughout the rest of the country, including Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Miami, Florida; New York, New York; Phoenix, Arizona; and Seattle, Washington. Additionally, the remote, sparsely populated areas in the Los Angeles HIDTA region are often exploited by traffickers to produce illicit drugs, particularly methamphetamine and marijuana. Local methamphetamine production often occurs in National Forests--Angeles, Cleveland, and San Bernardino--that are located in or near the HIDTA region. (See Figure 1.) Moreover, the climate of the HIDTA region is conducive to robust outdoor cannabis cultivation.

Mexican DTOs and criminal groups are expanding their influence in the Los Angeles HIDTA region and throughout the United States; regional command-and-control cells of these DTOs have increased their distribution operations of illicit drugs from the HIDTA region. They have gained significant control of illicit drug distribution in major markets, most recently in the eastern United States. For example, Mexican DTOs and criminal groups have supplanted many Colombian DTOs and criminal groups. These Mexican traffickers had smuggled illicit drugs such as cocaine into East Coast drug markets (Miami and New York City), often with the cooperation of Colombian traffickers. During this transition, Mexican DTOs and criminal groups have continued to redirect smuggling operations from South America to the East Coast using well-established routes they have relied on across the U.S.-Mexico border. This heightened level of drug smuggling activity across the U.S.-Mexico border has enhanced the threat posed to many border areas, particularly the Los Angeles HIDTA region, which serves as a base of operations for a significant number of Mexican DTOs that arrange drug smuggling activities from Mexico to various U.S. destinations.

End Note

1. U.S. Census estimates indicate that approximately 47 percent of all California residents resided in the Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) region as of July 1, 2005, the date from which most recent data are available.

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