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Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market

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Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Traffi cking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009 Questions and comments may be directed to Great Lakes/Mid-Atlantic Unit, Regional Threat Analysis Branch. National Drug Intelligence Center 319 Washington Street 5th Floor, Johnstown, PA 15901-1622 • (814) 532-4601 NDIC publications are available on the following web sites: INTERNET www.usdoj.gov/ndic ADNET http://ndicosa.adnet.sgov.gov RISS ndic.riss.net LEO https://www.leo.gov/http://leowcs.leopriv.gov/lesig/ndic/index.htm NATIONAL DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 031209 Product No. 2009-R0813-004 March 2009 Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009 This assessment is an outgrowth of a partnership between the NDIC and HIDTA Program for preparation of annual assessments depicting drug trafficking trends and developments in HIDTA Program areas. The report has been coordinated with the HIDTA, is limited in scope to HIDTA jurisdictional boundaries, and draws upon a wide variety of sources within those boundaries. NATIONAL DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area This page intentionally left blank. national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER ii Drug Market Analysis 2009 Washington/Baltimore Table of Contents Preface ...........................................................................................................................................................1 Strategic Drug Threat Developments ............................................................................................................2 HIDTA Overview ........................................................................................................................................2 Drug Threat Overview ..................................................................................................................................3 Drug Trafficking Organizations ....................................................................................................................4 Production .....................................................................................................................................................6 Transportation ...............................................................................................................................................6 Distribution .................................................................................................................................................10 Abuse ..........................................................................................................................................................11 Drug-Related Crime ....................................................................................................................................13 Illicit Finance ..............................................................................................................................................14 Outlook .......................................................................................................................................................15 Sources .......................................................................................................................................................16 national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER iii Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area This page intentionally left blank. national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER iv Drug Market Analysis 2009 Washington/Baltimore Preface This assessment provides a strategic overview of the illicit drug situation in the Washington/Baltimore (W/B) High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), highlighting significant trends and law enforcement concerns related to the trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs. The report was prepared through detailed analy- sis of recent law enforcement reporting, information obtained through interviews with law enforcement and public health officials, and available statistical data. The report is designed to provide policymakers, resource planners, and law enforcement officials with a focused discussion of key drug issues and developments facing the Washington/Baltimore HIDTA. Figure 1. Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area PENNSYLVANIA NEW MARYLAND JERSEY NY WEST BALTIMORE BALTIMORE (CITY) NY CT VIRGINIA OH PA NJ HOWARD MD MONTGOMERY ANNE LOUDOUN ARUNDEL WV DE ARLINGTON VA D.C. FAIRFAX (CITY) FAIRFAX PRINCE MANASSAS GEORGE'S NC PRINCE Area of Washington/ WILLIAM Baltimore HIDTA CHARLES DELAWARE ALEXANDRIA C P o h t om e MARYLAND VIRGINIA s ac River a p e a k e B a y HANOVER RICHMOND VIRGINIA HENRICO CHESTERFIELD HOPEWELL PRINCE COLONIAL HEIGHTS GEORGE PETERSBURG HIDTA County national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER 1 Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Strategic Drug Threat abusers who view heroin use as too risky, too Developments costly, or otherwise unattainable. • Methadone-related deaths have increased • Dominican drug trafficking organizations substantially in the region, especially in (DTOs) that typically have been supplied by Maryland and Virginia, primarily because Colombian DTOs are increasingly distrib- of misuse or abuse by individuals who use uting wholesale quantities of cocaine and methadone in combination with other CPDs, heroin in the region because they have devel- illicit drugs, or alcohol. oped new sources of supply in the Caribbean (Puerto Rican and other Dominican criminal • The distribution of MDMA (3,4-methylene- groups) and in Mexico. dioxymethamphetamine, also known as ec- stasy) is increasing, particularly in Washing- • Mexican DTOs operating out of the south- ton, D.C., where African American retail-level western United States are increasingly drug dealers are now distributing the drug at involved in cocaine trafficking in Virginia, open-air drug markets. especially in the Shenandoah Valley and the southern part of the state adjacent to the HIDTA region. Mexican DTOs that have HIDTA Overview established transshipment centers in Georgia The W/B HIDTA region encompasses four and North Carolina are supplying cocaine, distinct population centers—the Baltimore met- heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine to ropolitan area, the District of Columbia, north- the region. ern Virginia, and the Richmond metropolitan • Central American DTOs and criminal groups area. The region encompasses the following city from Guatemala and El Salvador are increas- and county jurisdictions: Maryland (the city of ingly involved in cocaine trafficking in the Baltimore as well as Anne Arundel, Baltimore, HIDTA region. Charles, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s Counties); northern Virginia (the cities • Law enforcement reporting indicates that of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Manassas along with wholesale cocaine availability was low in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William 2008 in most of the W/B HIDTA region. Counties); the Richmond metropolitan area (the • Law enforcement officials in the W/B HIDTA cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg, region report that the demand for high-potency and Richmond as well as Chesterfield, Hanover, marijuana is increasing. The number of indoor Henrico, and Prince George Counties); and grow sites producing high-potency marijuana Washington, D.C. is increasing, especially in the Baltimore, Economic, demographic, and transportation Maryland, and Richmond, Virginia, areas. factors make the W/B HIDTA region a fertile en- • Controlled prescription drugs (CPDs), par- vironment for drug trafficking and abuse. Some ticularly controlled prescription narcotics, are areas, such as inner-city Baltimore, Richmond, increasingly being abused in the W/B HIDTA and Washington, D.C., are economically de- region by young, affluent suburbanites who pressed, leading some residents to view drug traf- acquire the drugs from friends and family and ficking as the only means of financial gain and through doctor-shopping. Prescription narcot- drug abuse as a form of escape. Revitalization ics also provide an alternative to heroin for efforts in Washington, D.C., have included the national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER 2 Drug Market Analysis 2009 Washington/Baltimore demolition of several public housing projects and have resulted in the dispersion of drug- and gang- Relatively Low Cocaine Availability related problems to suburban areas, particularly in the Region in 2008 in Maryland. The W/B HIDTA region has a large Cocaine availability in the W/B HIDTA region and increasing population; the combined Balti- was relatively low throughout 2008, espe- more/Washington metropolitan area is the fourth- cially at the wholesale level, compared with largest in the nation, with a current population of availability in previous years, as evidenced more than 8 million. The region is ethnically and by higher wholesale prices. The price for a racially diverse, including a growing Hispanic kilogram of cocaine in Baltimore increased population, which has enabled Colombian, Do- from $22,000 in 2006 to as high as $32,000 minican, Mexican and, increasingly, Guatemalan in 2008. A kilogram of cocaine in Wash- and Salvadoran criminal groups and gangs with ington, D.C., sold for as high as $30,000 in ties to drug source and transit countries to oper- 2008, a significant increase from 2006, when ate more easily. Drug trafficking in the region is the price was as low as $19,000. A kilogram of cocaine in Richmond sold for $26,000 facilitated by an extensive transportation
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