U.S. Department of Justice
National Drug Intelligence Center
Rocky Mountain HIDTA Drug Market Analysis 2010
June 2010

Production

Outdoor cannabis cultivation is widespread throughout the region, most notably on public lands in Colorado and Utah. Mexican DTOs, the primary outdoor cultivators, favor public lands because of the added security provided by remote locations. Mexican DTOs typically employ illegal aliens, particularly from Michoacán, Mexico, to tend crop sites, provide protection from intruders (including law enforcement officers), and harvest the cannabis. These cultivators have well-established familial support structures in place and are typically well versed in farming requirements, including cannabis growing techniques. DTO members in Michoacán know most of the relatives of the workers who tend the cultivation sites and, as a result, can intimidate the workers in the United States by threatening to harm or kill their relatives in Mexico.

Mexican growers are increasingly cultivating in areas and employing techniques not traditionally used in the past in an attempt to avoid law enforcement eradication and seizure. For example, Mexican growers are cultivating at different altitudes and planting several smaller plots rather than one large site. The number of plants eradicated from national forest lands in the Rocky Mountain HIDTA region increased from 44,668 plants in 2008 to 119,521 plants in 2009. In August 2009, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies seized 14,500 plants from an outdoor cannabis grow operation in Pike National Forest, Jefferson County, Colorado. Additionally, in September 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and South Metro Drug Task Force seized approximately 4,000 plants from four grow sites located in the Douglas County portion of the Pike National Forest. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. Outdoor Cannabis Cultivation in National Forests in the Rocky Mountain HIDTA

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Indoor cannabis cultivation is increasing in the HIDTA region, particularly in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, to meet the rising demand for high-potency marijuana. According to HIDTA officials, the number of cannabis plants eradicated from indoor grow sites increased slightly from 2005 (5,628 plants) to 2009 (6,840 plants); however, Colorado showed the largest increase (39 percent) from 2005 (3,773) to 2009 (5,232). Increased indoor cannabis cultivation in Colorado is partly attributed to Amendment 20c, the Medicinal Use of Marijuana, which allows the cultivation, distribution, and use of marijuana. Law enforcement authorities in Colorado report that Amendment 20 has been exploited by seemingly legitimate medical marijuana growers and medical dispensaries that deliberately exceed the prescribed limits for the amount of processed marijuana that may be possessed or the number of plants that may be under cultivation at any one time. Officials from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in Colorado report that investigations of individuals who exploit the law are often complicated by differing views among state, county, and local officials with regard to medical marijuana laws.

Asian criminal groups and local independent dealers are the primary producers of high-potency marijuana from indoor cannabis cultivation sites. Indoor cannabis cultivators typically use advanced growing techniques that include lighting, irrigation systems, chemical fertilizers, and plant cloning. Indoor grow sites typically average fewer plants than outdoor grows and range in size from a single closet to entire houses or larger buildings that are converted into advanced grow operations.

Local methamphetamine production has steadily decreased since 2005, largely as a result of precursor chemical control legislation, successful law enforcement operations, and the increased availability of low-cost Mexican ice methamphetamine. According to National Seizure System (NSS) data, the number of methamphetamine laboratories seized in the Rocky Mountain HIDTA region decreased 80 percent from 241 laboratories in 2005 to 47 laboratories in 2009. (See Table 1.)

Table 1. Methamphetamine Laboratory Seizures, Rocky Mountain HIDTA Counties, 2005-2009

Source: National Seizure System, as of February 1, 2010.

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Transportation

The HIDTA region is strategically located between major drug source areas in Mexico and Canada and is linked by interstate highways to major domestic drug markets across the United States. HIDTA officials report that the Rocky Mountain HIDTA region is a key transshipment area, with the majority of illicit drugs destined for other major drug markets. Interstates 15, 25, 70, and 80 are the principal routes used by Mexican traffickers to transport wholesale quantities of illicit drugs into the region from locations along the Southwest Border (primarily Arizona) and central California. Denver, Colorado Springs, and Salt Lake City serve as principal distribution centers for other regional drug markets as well as transshipment centers for drugs supplied to markets in the Midwest and the eastern United States. Mexican DTOs further transport illicit drugs from Denver and Colorado Springs to other markets in the region, such as Billings and Cheyenne. They also use Salt Lake City as a distribution and transshipment center for secondary drug markets in the HIDTA region as well as markets in Arizona, California, and other neighboring states. In 2009, law enforcement officers in the Rocky Mountain HIDTA Highway Interdiction program intercepted 390 vehicles transporting illicit drugs. (See Table 2.) For example, in January 2009, the Colorado State Patrol (CSP) seized 587 pounds of marijuana from a private vehicle traveling on I-25 from Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Denver, and in December 2009, the CSP seized 300 pounds of marijuana on I-76 from a private vehicle en route from Tucson, Arizona, to Fort Morgan, Colorado. In April 2009, Utah Highway Patrol officers seized 7 pounds of methamphetamine and $1,971 from a private vehicle traveling on I-15 from Phoenix, Arizona, to Pasco, Washington. In January 2009, they seized 21 pounds of cocaine from a private vehicle traveling on I-70 from Los Angeles, California, to Rockford, Illinois.

Table 2. Rocky Mountain HIDTA Highway Interdiction Seizures, 2009

Source: Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area 2009 Annual Report.

Asian DTOs based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, smuggle thousands of dosage units of MDMA and multipound quantities of high-potency marijuana into the region. Most of the high-potency marijuana and MDMA smuggled across the U.S.-Canada border is transported to distribution centers in Denver; Salt Lake City; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. After smuggling drug shipments into the United States, these groups often smuggle powder cocaine and illicit drug proceeds into Canada on the return trip.

Traffickers in the region typically transport drugs in private and commercial vehicles along major interstate highways into and through the region; they also employ couriers to transport illicit drugs on trains, buses, and private and commercial aircraft. Illicit drugs transported in private vehicles are often placed in hidden compartments; drugs transported in commercial vehicles are typically placed in hidden compartments or commingled with legitimate products such as produce, car parts, building materials, or heavy machinery. Some criminal groups ship marijuana, cocaine, and MDMA through the U.S. Postal Service or use package delivery services to reduce transportation costs and seizures and to increase profits. Law enforcement reporting has identified a growing trend whereby couriers on commercial buses transport drugs into the region. For example, in July 2009, Western Colorado Drug Task Force personnel at a Greyhound bus terminal in Grand Junction, Colorado, discovered 75 pounds of marijuana being smuggled by a passenger from California. In August 2009, the Utah Highway Patrol seized 15 pounds of marijuana from a passenger on a Greyhound bus at a truck stop on State Route 19. The passenger stated that she was transporting the drug from Los Angeles to Bismarck, North Dakota.

Footnote

c. Amendment 20 allows a patient to possess no more than six marijuana plants, with three or fewer being mature, flowering plants that are producing a usable form of marijuana.

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