Drug Intelligence Brief

Drug Trafficking in the United States - September 1999

Introduction

The drug market in the United States is one of the most profitable illegal drug markets in the world, attracting ruthless, sophisticated, and aggressive drug traffickers. As a result, drug law enforcement agencies face an enormous challenge in protecting the country’s borders. Each year, according to the U.S. Customs Service, 60 million people enter the United States on more than 675,000 commercial and private flights. Another 6 million come by sea and 370 million by land. In addition, 116 million vehicles cross the land borders with Canada and Mexico. More than 90,000 merchant and passenger ships dock at U.S. ports, carrying more than 9 million shipping containers and 400 million tons of cargo. Another 157,000 smaller vessels visit our many coastal towns. Amid this voluminous trade, drug traffickers conceal cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine shipments for ultimate distribution in U.S. neighborhoods.

Diverse groups traffic and distribute illegal drugs. Criminal groups operating from South America smuggle cocaine and heroin into the United States by way of a variety of routes, including land routes through Mexico, maritime routes along both Mexican coasts, sea routes through the Caribbean, and international air corridors. Furthermore, criminal groups operating from neighboring Mexico smuggle cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, amphetamine, and marijuana into the United States. These criminal groups have smuggled heroin and marijuana across the Southwest Border and distributed them throughout the United States since the 1970s. Drug intelligence reporting suggests that, in addition to distributing cocaine and methamphetamine in the West, these Mexico-based groups now are expanding the distribution of those drugs into eastern U.S. markets. Finally, criminal groups based in Southeast and Southwest Asia smuggle heroin and hashish into the United States. Using New York City as a major distribution hub, these criminal groups move heroin up and down the eastern seaboard and into the Midwest.

Besides these criminal groups based abroad, domestic organizations cultivate, produce, manufacture, or distribute illegal drugs such as marijuana, methamphetamine, PCP, and LSD. By growing high-potency sinsemilla, domestic marijuana growers provide a product that easily competes with other suppliers. As demand for methamphetamine grows, especially in the West and Midwest, so does the number of illicit “mom and pop” methamphetamine producers who supply the drug to a growing number of addicts. Finally, a small number of chemists, located mostly in northern California, manufacture LSD for subsequent distribution to high school and college students throughout the United States.

Cocaine Trends

The primary U.S. drug threat is cocaine, particularly in its smokable form known as “crack” cocaine. The trafficking, distribution, and abuse of cocaine and crack cocaine over the past decade, along with increasing drug-related violence, seriously debilitate the quality of life in many cities and towns across the country. Cocaine traffickers continue to attract most of the nation’s drug law enforcement assets.

Coca plant

Cocaine HCl

157-kilogram cocaine seizure

Trafficking by Colombian and Mexican Organizations

The U.S. Southwest Border is the primary point for cocaine shipments entering the United States. According to a recent interagency intelligence assessment, approximately 60 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States crosses the Southwest Border. Cocaine is readily available in nearly all major cities in the United States. Organized crime groups operating in Colombia control the worldwide supply of cocaine, using a sophisticated infrastructure to move cocaine by land, sea, and air into the United States. In the United States, these Colombia-based groups operate cocaine distribution and drug money laundering networks made up of a vast number of multiple cells functioning in many major metropolitan areas. Each cell maintains meticulous records, and its actions are directed on a daily basis by key managers in Colombia.

Over the past decade, the Colombia-based drug groups have allowed Mexico-based trafficking organizations to play an increasing role in the U.S. cocaine trade. Throughout most of the 1980s, the criminals in Colombia used the drug smugglers in Mexico to transport cocaine shipments across the Southwest Border into the United States. After successfully smuggling the drugs across the border, the Mexican transporters transferred the drugs back to the Colombia-based groups. The seizure of nearly 21 metric tons of cocaine in 1989, however, led to a new arrangement between transportation organizations operating from Mexico and the organized crime groups operating from Colombia. This new arrangement radically changed the role and sphere of influence of the Mexico-based trafficking organizations in the U.S. cocaine trade. By the mid-1990s, Mexico-based transportation groups were receiving up to half the cocaine shipments they smuggled for the Colombia-based groups in exchange for their services. Both sides realized that this strategy eliminated the vulnerabilities and complex logistics associated with large cash transactions. The Colombia-based groups also realized that relinquishing part of each cocaine shipment to their associates operating from Mexico ceded a share of the wholesale cocaine market in the United States.

Today, traffickers operating from Colombia control wholesale-level cocaine distribution throughout the heavily-populated northeastern United States and along the eastern seaboard in cities such as Boston, Miami, Newark, New York City, and Philadelphia. Traffickers operating from Mexico, however, now control wholesale cocaine distribution throughout the western and midwestern United States. The distribution of multiton quantities of cocaine once dominated by the Colombia-based drug groups is now controlled by Mexico-based trafficking groups in cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. In the early 1990s, when the organized crime groups from Mexico were expanding their roles as cocaine transporters and wholesale level distributors, most of their U.S.-based command and control operations were in southern California. Today, Chicago is a key command-and-control center for Mexican cocaine operations, where traffickers control cocaine shipments from the time they are smuggled across the border until they are distributed to markets across the country. For example, during Fiscal Year 1998, the DEA Chicago Field Division conducted an investigation of Mexican traffickers in Chicago, resulting in the seizure of 1,576 kilograms of cocaine and $6.2 million dollars.

Another continuing development that highlights the increasing role of Mexico-based traffickers in the U.S. cocaine trade is the appearance of such traffickers in the New York City cocaine market, historically a stronghold of drug groups controlled from Cali, Colombia. In March 1997, New York Drug Enforcement Task Force agents identified a tractor-trailer loaded with a shipment of cocaine as it entered the LaGuardia Airport area and seized 1.6 metric tons of Colombian-owned cocaine commingled with a 60,000-pound shipment of carrots. The seized shipment was later found to be controlled by a transportation group of criminals residing in Mexico. In addition, authorities seized approximately $1.3 million in cash. This seizure was among the first verified incidents in which a Mexico-based transportation organization transported a cocaine shipment from Mexico all the way to New York City. Prior to this incident, Mexican transporters routinely smuggled cocaine from Mexico to points in the United States, primarily California and Texas, where it was handed off to Colombian nationals who subsequently transported it eastward.

The role of Mexico-based trafficking organizations is evolving. Recent reports suggest that some major international criminals in Colombia are continuing to distance themselves from day-to-day wholesale level cocaine distribution in the United States by delegating this task, at least occasionally, to the organizations operating from Mexico. Likely motivations for this change include the non-retroactive extradition law enacted by the Colombian National Assembly in December 1997. Accordingly, Colombian traffickers now face the prospect of extradition for “overt acts” committed on or after December 17, 1997, when the extradition amendment went into effect. By distancing themselves from overt acts in the United States, Colombian drug lords hope to minimize the danger that the United States will gather sufficient evidence to support an extradition request. This shift does not suggest that traffickers operating from Colombia will abandon the U.S. cocaine market en masse. Emerging drug lords, who do not face the difficulties in micromanaging operations as do the jailed Cali criminal leaders, have little reason to forego the profits generated by the wholesale U.S. cocaine market.

Crack Cocaine Trafficking

Crack, the inexpensive, smokable form of cocaine, continues to be distributed and used in most major cities. Although cocaine use in the United States has declined over the past decade, the rate of use in recent years has stabilized at high levels. Crack cocaine usage, which drove these rates, has reached the saturation point in large urban areas throughout the country. Street gangs, such as the Crips and the Bloods, and groups of ethnic Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Jamaicans dominate the retail market for crack cocaine nationwide. The migration of these gang members to smaller U.S. cities and rural areas resulted in an increased number of homicides, armed robberies, and assaults in those areas as the gang members used physical violence to maintain their drug distribution monopolies. The DEA Los Angeles Field Division continues to make regular purchases of crack cocaine from Los Angeles-based gangs. Intelligence gathered by the DEA Seattle Field Division indicates that one group, the Eight Trey Gangsters, moved to Spokane, Washington, for the sole purpose of selling crack cocaine. Gangs from the Spokane area reportedly are looking to expand their operations to Billings and Missoula, Montana. In March 1999, the Honolulu Operation Jetway Task Force arrested two black males and one black female in possession of one-half kilogram of cocaine. Two of the suspects were identified as members of the Eight Three Street Gangster Crips.

Prices and Purity

In 1998, cocaine prices remained low and stable. Nationwide, wholesale cocaine prices ranged from $10,000 to $36,000 per kilogram. In most major metropolitan areas, however, the price of a kilogram of cocaine ranged from $17,000 and $26,000. Average purity for cocaine at the gram, ounce, and kilogram levels remained stable at high levels. In 1998, the average purity of 1 kilogram of cocaine was 81 percent. Typically, cocaine HCl is converted into crack cocaine, or “rock,” within the United States by the secondary wholesaler or retailer. Crack cocaine often is packaged in vials, glassine bags, and film canisters. The size of a crack rock can vary, but generally ranges from one-tenth to one-half of a gram. Rocks can sell for as low as $3 to as high as $50, but prices generally range from $10 to $20.

Seizures

According to the Federal-wide Drug Seizure System (FDSS), U.S. Federal authorities seized slightly more than 117 metric tons of cocaine in 1998 compared to 102 metric tons in 1997, an increase of 15 percent.

Heroin Trends

Heroin is available in many U.S. cities, as evidenced by the unprecedented level of average retail, or street-level, purity. Due to the high purity of the heroin, users can ingest it nasally, a practice becoming increasingly common among heroin users in the Northeast. Heroin use continues to increase in many other areas of the country as well. Criminals in four foreign source areas produce the heroin available in the United States: South America (Colombia), Southeast Asia (principally Burma), Mexico, and Southwest Asia/Middle East (Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon).

Colombian opium poppy plants

Dried opium gum

Heroin pellet

South American Heroin

South American heroin, produced in Colombia, is available in the metropolitan areas of the Northeast and along the East Coast. Independent traffickers typically smuggle South American heroin into the United States via couriers traveling aboard commercial airlines, with each courier usually carrying from 1 to 2 kilograms of heroin per trip. These traffickers increased their influence in the lucrative northeastern heroin market by pursuing an aggressive marketing strategy. They distributed high-quality heroin (of purity frequently above 90 percent), undercut the price of their competition, and used their long-standing, effective drug distribution networks. Investigations also have highlighted the spread of South American heroin to smaller U.S. cities. In October 1997, for example, the DEA New York Field Division, along with the Special Investigative Bureau of Special Narcotics Court of New York, culminated an investigation of a heroin distribution organization with ties to Louisville, Kentucky, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Authorities dismantled 2 heroin mills, arrested 22 individuals, and seized approximately 11 kilograms of South American heroin and nearly $300,000 in cash.

In response to increased drug law enforcement presence at eastern ports of entry (POEs), some South American heroin traffickers have sought alternative routes. Recent investigations reflect the increasing use of Mexico to smuggle South American heroin into the United States. In June 1998, three separate seizures of South American heroin totaling 17 kilograms were made at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The heroin was smuggled through Mexico and was destined for New York City and Miami.

This practice of routing South American heroin through the U.S. Southwest Border has continued into 1999. From January to June 1999, authorities seized Colombian white heroin in nine separate incidents. The couriers were Colombian or Latin American nationals transiting Texas, usually via airports, en route primarily to New York City. The quantities seized ranged from 945 grams in body-pack pellets to 3.45 kilograms.

Mexican Heroin

Nearly all of the heroin produced in Mexico is destined for distribution in the United States. Organized crime groups operating from Mexico produce, smuggle, and distribute the black tar heroin sold in the western United States. Trafficking groups operating from Mexico evade interdiction efforts by smuggling heroin to the U.S. market as they receive orders from customers. Although illegal immigrants and migrant workers frequently smuggle heroin across the U.S. Southwest Border in small amounts for the major trafficking groups, the amounts of heroin smuggled into the United States at a time are on the rise. The average amount of 1 to 3 kilograms at a time has increased to multikilogram loads of heroin being moved at once, primarily in privately owned vehicles. Once the heroin has reached the United States, traffickers rely upon well-entrenched polydrug smuggling and distribution networks to deliver their product to markets primarily in the metropolitan areas of the western United States.

Indicative of the larger quantities of Mexican heroin being smuggled is the 1998 seizure of 19.6 kilograms of Mexican heroin at the San Ysidro, California POE. Moreover, in the first six months of 1999, the largest seizure took place in Jim Wells County, Texas, where local law enforcement seized 24 kilograms of black tar heroin from a pickup truck driven north by a Mexican resident alien. The heroin was secreted in crescent-shaped metal containers welded to all four tire rims of the vehicle. Another significant seizure by DEA San Jose consisted of 6.46 kilograms of black tar heroin seized from a Mexican national at the Nogales, Arizona POE.

Black tar heroin trafficking groups also are active in other parts of the nation. For example, the DEA Seattle Field Division, in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies, investigated an organization responsible for distributing black tar heroin and other drugs in the Seattle area, resulting in the May 1999 arrests of six defendants, four of whom were illegal Mexican aliens.

Southeast Asian Heroin

High-purity Southeast Asian heroin dominated the market in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Over the past few years, however, all indicators point to a decrease in Southeast Asian heroin available domestically. Significant investigations led to the incarceration in Thailand and extradition to the United States of more than a dozen high-level violators who played key roles in moving Southeast Asian heroin shipments to the United States. Southeast Asian heroin trafficking links run from independent brokers and shippers in Asia through overseas Chinese criminal populations to ethnic Chinese criminal wholesale distributors in the United States. In the United States, ethnic Chinese criminals rely upon local criminal organizations for distribution of Southeast Asian heroin. Despite the recent decline in trafficking of Southeast Asian heroin, Chinese criminal groups such as the Big Circle Boys remain among the most sophisticated heroin trafficking organizations in the world. Trafficking groups composed primarily of West African criminals also smuggle Southeast Asian heroin internationally and distribute it in the United States. A recent investigation of a Nigerian national by the DEA Detroit Field Division resulted in the seizure of approximately 3 pounds of heroin. The heroin, smuggled directly to Detroit from Bangkok, Thailand, was concealed in several false-bottom cooking pans shipped via Airborne Express.

Southwest Asian Heroin

Traffickers operating from the Middle East smuggle Southwest Asian heroin to ethnic enclaves in the United States. Criminal groups composed of ethnic Lebanese, Israelis, Pakistanis, Turks, and Afghans all are involved in supplying heroin to U.S.-based groups for retail distribution. For example, a DEA New York Field Division investigation of a Lebanese national who received high-quality Pakistani heroin from an Afghan source resulted in the arrest of a Lebanese, an Afghan, and a Pakistani as they delivered 500 grams of heroin to an undercover agent. The heroin was selling for $80 per gram.

Purity

On the street, heroin purity is often a reflection of the drug’s availability. High purities and low prices, for example, indicate that heroin supplies are readily available. DEA’s Domestic Monitor Program (DMP), a retail heroin purchase program, tracks street-level heroin purity. During 1998, the nationwide average purity for retail heroin from all sources was 41.2 percent, the highest yearly average recorded to date. This number is much higher than the average of 7 percent reported a decade ago and higher than the 26 percent recorded in 1991. The significant rise in average purity corresponds to the increased availability of high-purity South American heroin, particularly in the northeastern United States. The DMP, which shows roughly nine out of 10 street-level purchases in Boston, New York City, Newark, and Philadelphia are of South American origin, reflects this increase in the availability of South American heroin.

Moreover, the DMP indicated that throughout 1998, the retail purity of South American heroin was the highest for any source, averaging 53.4 percent. Southeast Asian heroin followed with an average of 36.8 percent. Southwest Asian heroin averaged 33.1 percent at the retail level, and Mexican heroin averaged 32.4 percent, more than double the 1991 average for Mexican heroin. Heroin purity at the street level generally remained highest in the northeastern United States where most of the nation’s user population lives. New York City continues to be a major importation and distribution center for South American and Southeast Asian heroin. Of all of the DMP cities, Philadelphia, with an average of 71 percent, recorded the highest average purity of retail heroin in 1998. Over the last several years, Philadelphia has ranked at or near the top in DMP retail heroin-purity levels.

Prices

Nationally, during 1998, South American heroin ranged from $50,000 to $200,000 per kilogram. Southeast Asian and Southwest Asian heroin ranged in price from $55,000 to $190,000 per kilogram. Wholesale-level prices for Mexican heroin were the lowest of any type, ranging from $25,000 to $190,000 per kilogram. The wide range in kilogram prices reflects variables such as buyer/seller relationships, quantities purchased, purchase frequencies, purity, and transportation costs.

Seizures

FDSS statistics indicated that nearly 1,500 kilograms of heroin were seized in 1998, compared to 1,600 kilograms in 1997.

Methamphetamine Trends

Domestic methamphetamine production, trafficking, and abuse are concentrated primarily in the western and southwestern United States. Methamphetamine also is available in wholesale quantities in the Midwest and some portions of the South and Southeast. Clandestine laboratories operating in California and Mexico are the primary sources of supply for methamphetamine available in the United States.

Bags of seized methamphetamine

Methamphetamine laboratory explosion site in California

Historically, outlaw motorcycle gangs and many independent trafficking groups have supplied methamphetamine to U.S. drug users. Although independent trafficking groups continue to produce methamphetamine, criminal groups operating from California composed of Mexican nationals and Mexican-Americans, some with ties to major Mexico-based organizations, currently dominate wholesale methamphetamine production and distribution in the United States. Over the past few years, these groups have revolutionized the production and distribution of methamphetamine by operating large-scale laboratories producing the unprecedented quantities of high-purity methamphetamine that have saturated the western U.S. drug market. Recent reports suggest a growing methamphetamine problem in the Mid-Atlantic states and even in parts of New England, fueled by these California-based groups. A relatively large laboratory, capable of producing 60 pounds of methamphetamine per cook, was seized in Dallas in December 1998. Two of the three suspects arrested at the laboratory were Mexican nationals.

Although methamphetamine is still manufactured in Mexico, restrictions on the importation of the methamphetamine precursor pseudoephedrine may have caused many Mexico-based organizations to switch to the manufacture of amphetamine, which uses another controlled, but not as rigidly regulated, precursor chemical, phenylpropanolamine (PPA). Mexico-based organizations dominate wholesale amphetamine production and distribution in the United States, often selling the drug as methamphetamine. Drug intelligence data indicated that 221 kilograms of amphetamine were seized on the Southwest Border in 1998, compared to 71 kilograms seized in 1997, a 200-percent increase.

The primary POEs into the United States for methamphetamine and amphetamine produced in Mexico are in California, particularly the San Ysidro POE. Texas POEs, however, particularly Laredo, are experiencing increased smuggling activity. The most common method of transporting methamphetamine and amphetamine is via passenger vehicles, particularly cars. Other vehicles include pickup trucks and four-wheel-drive vehicles. According to the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), the amount of methamphetamine seized in transit from Mexico to the United States has increased dramatically since 1992. Authorities seized 560 kilograms of methamphetamine along the border in 1998, compared with only 6.5 kilograms seized in 1992. Two methamphetamine seizures in November 1998 are illustrative of the amount of methamphetamine transiting the Southwest Border. In November, 1998, 20 pounds of methamphetamine were seized from a 45-year-old Mexican national driving a 1987 Ford Thunderbird at the Calexico, California POE. In November 1998, two Hispanic males from Dallas were arrested with 19 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in the gas tank of their 1992 Mazda 929.

Criminal drug groups, operating domestically in California, are extending their methamphetamine operations farther eastward. These groups are composed of Mexican nationals and Mexican-Americans who operate from both sides of the border, and illegal aliens who reside in the United States. Often, well established families that have been involved in smuggling contraband for decades direct these organizations. Such organizations operate in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, and Washington. One indicator of the extent to which California-based criminal groups supply methamphetamine to other states comes from seizure data collected through Operation Pipeline, the U.S. Highway interdiction program managed by EPIC. Operation Pipeline seizure statistics show that 979 kilograms of methamphetamine were seized from vehicles nationwide in 1998, more than double the 447 kilograms seized in 1996. In March 1998, 40 pounds of methamphetamine were seized in Tampa, Florida. All 14 suspects subsequently arrested in this case were Hispanic, nine of whom were illegal aliens.

Traditionally, methamphetamine has been the drug of choice among the illicit drug user population within certain areas of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and portions of the Pacific Northwest. Areas of the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and some portions of the Southeast are experiencing a dramatic increase in the availability of methamphetamine, supplied by trafficking groups based in California, some with ties to major criminal groups in Mexico. Moreover, these groups are the primary source for methamphetamine in Hawaii, reportedly replacing traditional Asian suppliers of large crystal methamphetamine, also known as “ice.”

Certain areas in the Midwest, such as Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, have experienced dramatic increases in methamphetamine laboratory seizures. The increase in laboratory seizures does not reflect necessarily a concerted effort by major traffickers to shift production from sites in California, but may reflect the increasing effort by local entrepreneurs, operating on the periphery of the methamphetamine market, to exploit the expanding demand for the drug and to satisfy personal use.

Prices

The supply of ephedrine/pseudoephedrine—key methamphetamine precursors—heavily influences the price of methamphetamine. Prices over the past 5 years have remained relatively stable and currently range from $4,000 to $30,000 per pound. At the retail level, prices run from $500 to $2,500 per ounce, and from $25 to $150 per gram.

Seizures

DEA methamphetamine seizures in the United States have increased significantly over the last several years, from 289 kilograms in 1996 to 1,202 kilograms in 1998. Although most of the 1998 seizures occurred in DEA divisions in California, two nonborder divisions reported seizures of over 100 kilograms of methamphetamine in 1998: Saint Louis (103 kilograms) and Atlanta (102 kilograms).

Marijuana Trends

Marijuana is the most widely abused and readily available illicit drug in the United States. Relaxed public perception of harm, popularization by the media and by groups advocating legalization, along with the smoking of marijuana-filled cigars known as “blunts,” contribute to the nationwide resurgence in marijuana’s popularity.

Mexican marijuana

The leaves of the Cannabis sativa L. plant

Marijuana smuggled into the United States, whether grown in Mexico or transshipped from other source areas, accounts for most of the marijuana available in the United States. Marijuana produced in Mexico remains the most widely available. U.S. drug law enforcement reporting also suggests increased availability of domestically-grown marijuana, as well as substantial shipments from Colombia and Jamaica. Moreover, hydroponic marijuana enters the U.S. drug market from Canada. The availability of marijuana from the Far East, primarily Thailand, generally is limited to the West Coast.

Domestically Grown Marijuana

According to 1998 Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP) statistics, the five leading states for indoor growing activity were California, Florida, Oregon, Alaska, and Kentucky. Indoor growers in these states cultivated 90 plants on average. Alaska is the only state not previously listed in the 1997 ranking; it has emerged recently as a leading state for indoor marijuana, replacing Washington State on the 1998 list. Nationally, drug law enforcement authorities seized 2,616 indoor grow operations in 1998, a decline from the 1997 number of 2,941 operations. DCE/SP statistics indicated that the major outdoor growing states in 1998 were California, Hawaii, Kentucky, and Tennessee, which accounted for approximately 75 percent of eradicated outdoor cultivated plants.

Mexican Marijuana

Organized crime groups operating from Mexico have smuggled marijuana into the United States since the early 1970s. These groups operating from Mexico maintain extensive networks of associates, often related through familial or regional ties in the United States, where they control polydrug smuggling and wholesale distribution from hub cities to retail markets throughout the United States. EPIC reported that U.S. authorities seized a record 745.7 metric tons of marijuana along the U.S. Southwest Border in 1998—approximately 25 percent more than the 599 metric tons seized in 1997. Of the 1998 total, law enforcement officials seized the largest quantity of marijuana (378 metric tons) in Texas, which shares a 1,276-mile border with Mexico. One-third of all marijuana seizures occur in South Texas, particularly at the Falfurrias, Laredo, and Sarita border checkpoints. Officials also seized 187 metric tons in California, 148 metric tons in Arizona, and 33 metric tons in New Mexico.

Groups operating from Mexico employ a variety of transportation and concealment methods to smuggle marijuana into the United States. Most of the marijuana smuggled into the United States is concealed in vehicles—often in false compartments—or hidden in shipments of legitimate agricultural or industrial products. Marijuana also is smuggled across the border by rail, horse, raft, and backpack. Shipments of 20 kilograms or less are smuggled by pedestrians who enter the United States at border checkpoints and by backpackers who are alone or in groups (“mule” trains) that cross the border at more remote locations. Another prevalent method involves organized, large-scale shipment by Federal Express and other shippers, aided by corrupt employees. Organizations of Jamaicans appear to be involved in dispatching Mexican marijuana by parcel carriers. Organized crime groups operating from Mexico also conceal marijuana in an array of vehicles, including commercial vehicles, private automobiles, pickup trucks, vans, mobile homes, and horse trailers, driven through border POEs. Larger shipments in the multithousand kilogram range usually are smuggled in tractor-trailers, such as the nearly 2.4 metric tons of marijuana seized in January 1999, by U.S. Customs Service officials from a produce trailer at the Pharr, Texas, POE.

The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) believes that a bumper crop of Mexican marijuana, grown mostly in the mountainous Pacific Coast states, has been shipped to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The result has been major U.S. Southwest Border seizures, particularly in South Texas. In February 1999, 5 tons of marijuana were seized at a South Texas residence, and in March nearly 5,000 kilograms were found at another residence. In addition, USBP agents working along the Rio Grande in Starr County, Texas, seized 12,528 kilograms of marijuana in March 1999, five times the amount seized in the previous month. From Falcon Dam to Boca Chica, where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico, the USBP seized 100,037 kilograms of marijuana, with an estimated worth of $178 million, from October 1998 to March 1999. This is an increase of 50 percent over the same period a year ago.

Besides overland smuggling, trafficker vessels often sail up the east and west coast of Mexico, either to U.S. ports, drop-off sites along the U.S. coast, or to rendezvous points with other boats bound for the United States. For example, law enforcement authorities in Southern California indicate that marijuana is transferred in international waters from mother ships to Mexican fishing vessels, which deliver it to the Mexican Baja California peninsula. From there, the marijuana is transported overland and generally transits the Los Angeles metropolitan area to points eastward.

Canadian-Grown Marijuana

There also is a growing indication that Canada is becoming a source country for hydroponically grown marijuana destined for the United States. Recent reporting by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and USBP indicates that “B.C. Bud” and “Quebec Gold” are transiting the 4,000-mile U.S. Northern Border. Moveover, the U.S. Customs Service reported that it seized 1,185 kilograms of B.C. Bud along the British Columbia-Washington Border in 1998 compared to only 5 kilograms in 1994.

Prices and Purity (THC Content)

Prices for commercial-grade marijuana have remained relatively stable over the past decade, ranging from approximately $400 to $1,000 per pound in U.S. Southwest Border areas to between $700 and $2,000 per pound in the Midwest and Northeast United States. The national price range for sinsemilla, a higher potency form of marijuana favored by domestic indoor growers, is between $850 and $6,000 per pound. Marijuana potency has increased over the past two decades. According to first quarter 1999 data from the Potency Monitoring Project at the University of Mississippi, the THC content of commerical-grade marijuana during the late 1970s and early 1980s was under 2 percent, whereas in 1997 and 1998 it was 5.6 percent and 5.88 percent, respectively. Similarly, the potency of sinsemilla marijuana rose from 6 percent in the late 1970s and 1980s to 11.55 percent in 1997 and 12.26 percent in 1998.

LSD Trends

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) remains available in retail quantities in virtually every state. LSD production is believed to be centered on the West Coast, particularly in San Francisco, Northern California, and the Pacific Northwest. Distribution of LSD is unique within the drug culture. A proliferation of mail-order sales has created a marketplace where the sellers virtually are unknown to the buyers, giving the highest-level traffickers considerable insulation from drug law enforcement operations. The vast majority of users are middle-class high school and college students, attracted by low prices and an incorrect view that the drug is harmless. Due to infrequent and irregular production cycles, the small number of chemists believed to be manufacturing the drug, and the close-knit, fraternal associations they have formed over the past two decades, authorities have seized few LSD laboratories in the United States in recent years. In 1998, for example, DEA seized only one clandestine LSD laboratory.

PCP Trends

Phencylidine (PCP) production is centered in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. Los Angeles-based street gangs, primarily the Crips, continue to distribute PCP to many cities in the United States using their cocaine trafficking operations. These gangs pose a particular problem due to their propensity for violence. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the widespread availability and use of crack cocaine displaced demand for PCP. More recently, however, reporting suggests that PCP abuse is increasing slightly in many cities, as some crack addicts return to the use of this drug. For instance, the DEA Portland District Office reports a resurgence in the popularity of liquid PCP, also known as “sherm,” among Portland area gangs. California street gangs reportedly are responsible for the reemergence of PCP in the Pacific Northwest. Treated cigarettes, which have a yellow tint caused by the liquid PCP, were first observed on the street in 1996, costing between $15 and $20 each. The DEA Philadelphia Field Division also reports that PCP was available readily in the region in 1998. The DEA seized three clandestine PCP laboratories in 1998.

MDMA Trends

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a stimulant that possesses hallucinogenic properties as well. Street names include “ecstasy”, “XTC”, “clarity”, “essence”, and “doctor.” Dosage units of MDMA, usually sold in tablet form, vary in content from 55 to 150 milligrams. DEA reporting indicates that the price at the wholesale level is on the decrease, indicating greater availability and a widening profit margin. The wholesale price of MDMA ranges from $2 to $11.50 per dosage unit, with the retail price ranging from $20 to $30 per dosage unit.

The clandestine production of MDMA is simple and “recipes” can be found on the Internet. Although the vast majority of MDMA consumed domestically is produced in Europe, a limited number of illicit MDMA laboratories operate in the United States. For instance, a large-scale MDMA laboratory was seized in January 1998 in Massachusetts. The laboratory was capable of producing an estimated 20 kilograms (approximately 154,000 dosage units) of MDMA per batch. Six other MDMA labs were seized in the United States in 1998.

MDMA is manufactured clandestinely in Western Europe, particularly in Belgium and the Netherlands. Much of the MDMA is manufactured in the southeast section of the Netherlands near Maastricht. Despite the Dutch Government’s efforts to curtail MDMA trafficking, the Netherlands remains a primary source country for the drug. International MDMA traffickers based in the Netherlands and Belgium consistently use other European countries, such as France, England, Germany, and Spain, as transshipment points for MDMA shipments destined for the United States.

European and Israeli groups, the principal traffickers of MDMA worldwide, supply the United States with the drug. These organizations smuggle multikilogram quantities of MDMA by courier aboard commercial airline flights, as well as by express mail service parcels. Popular with college students and middle-class youths, MDMA became an increasingly prominent abuse problem during the early 1990s because many users who had avoided the use of hard drugs, such as crack cocaine or heroin, viewed MDMA as nonaddictive and benign. MDMA is sold primarily at legitimate nightclubs and bars, at underground nightclubs sometimes called “acid houses,” or at all-night parties known as “raves.” MDMA distributors, frequently using the nightclub and rave environments to mask their illegal activities, have targeted successfully the young, college-age crowd drawn to the party atmosphere and loud, fast-paced music.

MDMA trafficking is on the rise throughout the United States, particularly in New York City where DEA has seized approximately 250 kilograms of MDMA in a 6-month period in 1998 and 1999.

Moveover, in July 1999, customs officials at the New York-Canadian Border seized over 60,000 MDMA pills, approximately 15 kilograms, found in a truckload of disposable diapers. The driver, a Canadian national residing in Québec, was believed to be bringing the drugs from Québec to New York City when officials arrested him at the Champlain crossing. Police also arrested a Manhattan resident in connection with the case. The increasing involvement of organized criminal groups, particularly Israeli and Russian Organized Crime, indicates the “professionalization” of MDMA markets. For instance, in February 1999, an Israeli national was arrested at JFK International Airport in possession of 12 kilograms of MDMA. Another Israeli national was arrested at JFK International Airport in possession of 13 kilograms of MDMA a week later. In April 1999, two couriers were arrested at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport in possession of 24 kilograms of MDMA; an Israeli national was the recipient of the drugs. DEA reporting indicates developing distribution networks expanding from coast to coast, enabling a relatively few organizations to dominate MDMA markets nationwide.