National Drug Intelligence Center   South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2008   June 2008

Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• Colombian and Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are increasingly collaborating to transport and distribute cocaine and to launder illicit drug proceeds in the South Florida HIDTA region.
   
• Demand for high-potency marijuana is increasing in the region, leading various traffickers, including Caucasian and Cuban criminal groups, to cultivate increasing quantities of cannabis at indoor grow sites in South Florida. According to Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP) data, the number of cannabis plants eradicated from indoor grow sites in the region increased almost 81 percent between 2005 and 2007.
   
• The South Florida HIDTA region has emerged as a source for diverted pharmaceutical drugs distributed in areas of the eastern United States, including Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina. Distributors and abusers often travel to the region to obtain diverted pharmaceutical drugs from distributors of various races/ethnicities and pain management clinics; they also use the Internet to order pharmaceuticals from Florida-based Internet pharmacies.
   
• Heroin abuse, while at low levels, is rising in the South Florida HIDTA region, particularly among young Caucasians who previously abused prescription narcotics. Public health officials attribute this, in large part, to the lower price of heroin as compared with prescription narcotics, particularly OxyContin.

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HIDTA Overview

The South Florida HIDTA encompasses Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties. (See Figure 1.) The region is a principal U.S. arrival zone¹ for powder cocaine and South American (SA) heroin; it is also a distribution center for powder cocaine, SA heroin, marijuana, and pharmaceutical drugs intended for distribution throughout the eastern United States, including drug markets in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina. The South Florida HIDTA region also is a significant money laundering area used by traffickers throughout the country because of its sophisticated financial infrastructure and extensive international banking community.

The South Florida HIDTA region consists of a racially/ethnically diverse population and possesses a varied economy based on tourism, manufacturing, import/export businesses, banking, and information technology.² As such, U.S. citizens and foreign nationals are attracted and often relocate to the South Florida HIDTA region. Moreover, many foreign nationals and/or immigrants in the region come from drug source or transit countries such as Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Venezuela. Consequently, the region's demographic and economic diversity easily enables DTOs of various races/ethnicities to blend with and exploit the local population.

The South Florida HIDTA region has a highly developed transportation infrastructure composed of seaports, airports, and roadways, such as Interstates 75 and 95, that link it to drug source and transit areas as well as major eastern U.S. drug markets. (See Figure 2.) DTOs routinely exploit this infrastructure to transport illicit drugs into, through, and from the region to other drug markets in Florida and the eastern United States.

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Drug Threat Overview

Cocaine trafficking and abuse pose the most significant drug-related threat to the South Florida HIDTA region. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) National Drug Threat Survey (NDTS) 2007, 24 of the 31 local law enforcement agency respondents in the South Florida HIDTA identified cocaine as the greatest drug threat in their jurisdictions. Additionally, law enforcement officials often associate high levels of violence and property crime in the region with the distribution and abuse of cocaine, particularly crack cocaine.

The production and distribution of marijuana also pose a significant threat to the South Florida HIDTA region. Marijuana is widely available throughout the HIDTA region and is abused by members of all racial/ethnic and social groups. Most of the marijuana available in the region is produced locally at indoor and, to a lesser extent, outdoor grow sites. Significant quantities of marijuana available in the region also are produced in Jamaica and Mexico and transported to the area by various traffickers. The demand for high-potency marijuana is increasing in the region, as is the number of indoor cannabis cultivation sites that produce the drug.

The diversion, distribution, and abuse of pharmaceutical drugs are of serious concern to law enforcement and public health officials throughout the HIDTA region. Florida medical examiner data reveal that more drug-related deaths are typically associated with the abuse or improper use of pharmaceutical drugs than those associated with the abuse of other drugs, including cocaine or heroin. Prescription narcotics, mainly OxyContin (oxycodone) and Vicodin (hydrocodone) are widely abused in the region. Central nervous system (CNS) depressants, including benzodiazepines such as Xanax (alprazolam), and steroids also are available and abused. Pharmaceutical drug abusers are enticed in part by the ease with which they can obtain the drugs over the Internet from retail-level distributors and abusers or pain clinics. Moreover, distributors and abusers from markets in other areas of the country, including Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina, often travel to the region to purchase diverted pharmaceutical drugs from various distributors and pain management clinics; they also use the Internet to order pharmaceuticals from Florida-based Internet pharmacies.³

SA heroin, methamphetamine, and other dangerous drugs (ODDs), primarily MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy), pose varying levels of threat to the South Florida HIDTA region. Most of the heroin transported into the HIDTA region is further transported to drug markets in the eastern states, such as Maryland and New Jersey; some of the heroin remains in southern Florida to meet the limited local demand for the drug. Heroin abuse had been largely confined to an established population of Hispanic long-term heroin abusers in the region; however, heroin abuse is increasing among Caucasian prescription narcotic abusers. Methamphetamine availability and abuse are low in the region; demand is satisfied with Mexican ice methamphetamine distributed by local independent dealers who have ties to Atlanta-based Mexican DTOs. According to National Seizure System (NSS) data, no methamphetamine laboratories were reported seized in the region as of June 12, 2008, no methamphetamine laboratories were seized in 2007, and only three methamphetamine laboratories were seized through 2006 and 2005. The availability and abuse of ODDs, principally MDMA, are at stable levels; however, law enforcement seizures of MDMA have declined in the region over the past year.⁴

End Notes

1. U.S. arrival zones are land, air, and maritime entry points along the borders of and within the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
2. According to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2000 (the latest year for which such data are available), Caucasians account for 45 percent of the South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) population, followed by Hispanics (34%), African Americans (18%), and other races (3%).
3. The full extent of prescription drug sales from Florida-based Internet pharmacies is an intelligence gap.
4. The reason for the decline in MDMA seizures is an intelligence gap.

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