To
Contents
To Previous Page
To Appendix A
To Publications
Page
To Home Page
U.S. Department of Justice
National Drug Intelligence Center
New Mexico HIDTA Drug Market Analysis 2010
May 2010
NDIC analysts expect that drug-related violence in Mexico will continue to affect the movement of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana into and through the New Mexico HIDTA region. Mexican DTOs will increasingly avoid the high levels of violence in areas near the El Paso/Juárez plaza in favor of other smuggling routes into the United States. Methamphetamine and heroin shipments that have historically entered through Arizona and California before transiting New Mexico will continue at high levels, particularly as the production of these drugs increases in Mexico. Increased methamphetamine production in Mexico will also result in decreased production of the drug in New Mexico. Marijuana and cocaine seizures in New Mexico are expected to remain low as traffickers disperse shipments of these drugs to alternative routes in Texas and Arizona to avoid the violence and Mexican military and law enforcement operations in the El Paso/Juárez plaza. Despite these shifts in drug smuggling routes, the availability of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana in New Mexico will continue to meet local demand for these drugs. MDMA distribution and abuse are expected to rise in the region as young adults who formerly traveled to Juárez to abuse the drug no longer do so because of the violence there.
The recent arrests of Barrio Azteca members stemming from the murders in Juárez of a U.S. Consulate employee and an El Paso County Sheriff's Office employee have weakened the structure of the organization and are expected to hamper the gang's drug trafficking operations in New Mexico, particularly in southern HIDTA counties. The gang will reorganize its structure to compensate for the arrests and increased scrutiny by law enforcement agencies but is not expected to do so successfully in the near term.
End of page.