March 2000

OPERATION TAR PIT

In March 2000, the DEA concluded Operation Tar Pit, which targeted a Mexico-based black tar heroin trafficking organization. The investigation was carried out in cooperation with the Justice Department's Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney's offices, and grew out of a DEA San Diego investigation that began in June 1998. The San Diego investigation revealed that a trafficking organization that was the source of much of the high-purity black tar heroin being trafficked in the San Diego area had established distribution cells in several other U.S. cities. Investigators also determined that this organization had previously been the subject of a joint DEA/FBI investigation in New Mexico in 1998.

Operation Tar Pit was conducted by the DEA exclusively within the United States and specifically targeted a black tar heroin trafficking organization based in Nayarit, Mexico. Transportation and distribution cells of the Nayarit organization had been established in cities across the United States, including: San Diego, Los Angeles, and Bakersfield, CA; Chicago, IL; Reno and Las Vegas, NV; Salt Lake City, UT; Nashville, TN; Corpus Christi, TX; Detroit, MI; Atlanta, GA; Denver, CO; Phoenix, AZ; Honolulu and Maui, HI; Portland, OR; Albuquerque, NM; Cleveland, Columbus, and Steubenville, OH; Anchorage, AK; and Pittsburgh, PA; as well as in West Virginia, Minnesota, Alabama, Kentucky, and New Jersey. As of June 2000, DEA, FBI, and state and local law enforcement agents arrested nearly 200 individuals in 12 cities.

The investigation was linked to numerous heroin overdose deaths in the small town of Chimayo, New Mexico, located approximately 90 miles north of Albuquerque. Between 1995 and 1998, approximately 85 deaths in Chimayo were attributed to high-purity, black tar heroin. In October 1999, DEA and FBI agents in Albuquerque arrested approximately 33 individuals in connection with this investigation. On March 22, 2000, the DEA in Albuquerque subsequently arrested an additional 17 individuals connected to the Chimayo cell.

Since October 1999, agents have seized 41 pounds of heroin, with a street value of millions of dollars. The heroin ranged in purity from 60 to 84 percent, even in smaller (i.e., gram quantity) seizures. The high purity level is believed to be responsible for the overdose deaths in Chimayo, New Mexico, as well as more recent overdose deaths in several other cities.