National Drug Intelligence Center   Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2008   May 2008

Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• A resurgence of methamphetamine production has occurred in several HIDTA areas, particularly southern Missouri. Local law enforcement agencies throughout the HIDTA region report that methamphetamine producers are exploiting the region's lack of centralized reporting on pseudoephedrine purchases by buying pseudoephedrine at or below state thresholds from multiple pharmacies until they obtain enough to produce methamphetamine.
   
• HIDTA law enforcement agencies report that some gang members who distribute illicit drugs at the retail level are using social networking Internet sites such as MySpace and Facebook to advertise their products.
   
• Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are exploiting the growing Hispanic population within the HIDTA to facilitate their control over drug trafficking and to expand their area of operations into small communities in Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. These small communities have become transit hubs for Mexican traffickers.

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HIDTA Overview

The Midwest HIDTA region consists of 73 counties in a seven-state area that stretches from North Dakota to Missouri¹ (see Figure 1 in Preface). The Midwest HIDTA counties are located in the central United States between western and eastern drug markets; they are connected by an extensive transportation infrastructure that makes the HIDTA a significant transshipment area for drug traffickers. Most major interstate highways in the northern United States pass through and intersect in the Midwest HIDTA region, facilitating the transportation of illicit drugs from the U.S.-Mexico (Southwest) border and from the U.S.-Canada (Northern) border to drug markets throughout the United States. The region's primary markets (Kansas City, Omaha, and St. Louis) and secondary markets (Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa; Fargo/Grand Forks, North Dakota; Sioux City, Iowa/Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Springfield, Missouri; and Wichita, Kansas) serve as distribution centers for major U.S. drug markets as well as smaller rural counties in the HIDTA area.² The widespread distribution and abuse of crack cocaine and ice methamphetamine and associated violence are the primary drug threats in these market areas.

The Midwest HIDTA region is extremely vulnerable to drug trafficking from the Southwest Border because of its connectivity to that region; most illicit drugs used in and transported through the HIDTA enter the United States through the Southwest Border. Mexican traffickers transport drugs into the Midwest HIDTA region from Mexico through distribution hubs in California (Los Angeles) and the Southwest Border area (El Paso, Dallas, Phoenix, and Tucson). Interstate highways are the primary trafficking routes; however, virtually all U.S. highways, state highways, and local roads are used by drug traffickers to transport illicit drugs. Mexican traffickers transport substantial quantities of ice methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin into and through the HIDTA region for local consumption and en route to national-level markets in the Midwest and Northeast, including Chicago and New York.

The Midwest HIDTA region also is vulnerable to drug trafficking from the Northern Border, since North Dakota shares a 300-mile-long border and 18 official land ports of entry (POEs) with Canada (see Figure 1 in Preface). The area between Northern Border POEs is isolated, rural, and rife with opportunity for drug traffickers and criminal groups to smuggle Canadian marijuana, MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy), and pseudoephedrine (a methamphetamine precursor chemical) into the HIDTA without detection by law enforcement personnel.³

Mexican DTOs and criminal groups dominate the transportation and wholesale distribution of methamphetamine, cocaine, and Mexican marijuana in the area. An increasing illegal and legal Mexican and Central American population in suburban and rural towns is fueling the expansion and dominance of Mexican polydrug trafficking groups who exploit the infrastructure of these growing communities to mask their activities from law enforcement officials and to expand their distribution networks. African American and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic street gangs control retail drug distribution in the Midwest HIDTA metropolitan areas and contribute significantly to violent crime in those areas. Local independent dealers are the principal retail distributors in the rural areas of the HIDTA region.

End Notes

1. The seven states are Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. On February 20, 2008, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) announced the addition of Rock Island County, Illinois, as a Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) designated county.
2. Primary markets serve as significant transshipment and distribution centers for illicit drugs supplied to markets in multiple regions of the country. Secondary markets supply illicit drugs to smaller markets within a state or neighboring states.
3. Approximately 90 percent of Canada's population is concentrated within 99 miles of the U.S. border. The 2007 population of the Winnipeg metropolitan area (Manitoba Province's largest city) was 712,700; by contrast, the 2006 population of the entire state of North Dakota was estimated at approximately 636,000.

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