New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009
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ARCHIVED New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009 Questions and comments may be directed to Southwest 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 042309 This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. ARCHIVED Product No. 2009-R0813-019 April 2009 New Mexico 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 This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. New Mexico ARCHIVED High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area This page intentionally left blank. national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER ii This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. Drug Market Analysis 2009 ARCHIVED New Mexico Table of Contents Preface ...........................................................................................................................................................1 Strategic Drug Threat Developments ............................................................................................................2 HIDTA Overview .........................................................................................................................................2 Drug Threat Overview ..................................................................................................................................4 Drug Trafficking Organizations ....................................................................................................................5 Production .....................................................................................................................................................6 Transportation ...............................................................................................................................................8 Distribution ...................................................................................................................................................9 Drug-Related Crime ....................................................................................................................................10 Abuse ..........................................................................................................................................................10 Illicit Finance ..............................................................................................................................................11 Outlook .......................................................................................................................................................12 Sources ........................................................................................................................................................13 national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER iii This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. New Mexico ARCHIVED High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area This page intentionally left blank. national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER iv This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. Drug Market Analysis 2009 ARCHIVED New Mexico Preface This assessment provides a strategic overview of the illicit drug situation in the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) region, highlighting significant trends and law enforcement concerns related to the trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs. The report was prepared through detailed analysis of recent law enforcement reporting, information obtained through interviews with law en- forcement 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 New Mexico HIDTA. Figure 1. New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area UTAH COLORADO KANSAS OKLAHOMA SAN JUAN RIO ARRIBA WA MT ND DELAWARE MN OR WI ID SD WY IA NE SANDOVAL SANTA NV UT FE CO KS MO NEW MEXICO CA NM OK BERNALILLO AZ AR LA TX VALENCIA TORRANCE ARIZONA Area of New Mexico HIDTA LINCOLN CHAVES GRANT LEA TEXAS OTERO EDDY DONA ANA LUNA HIDALGO MEXICO HIDTA County national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER 1 This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. New Mexico ARCHIVED High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Strategic Drug U.S. Census data indicate that nearly 50 percent of the population resides in either Bernalillo County Threat Developments (615,099 residents) or Dona Ana County (193,888); • The distribution and abuse of Mexican ice other significant population centers are the coun- methamphetamine pose the principal illicit ties of Santa Fe (142,407), San Juan (126,473), and drug threats to the New Mexico HIDTA region. Sandoval (113,772). Albuquerque is New Mexico’s Local methamphetamine production is also largest city, with approximately 504,949 residents; problematic, but the magnitude of the threat is other major cities are Farmington, Las Cruces, minimal in comparison with the distribution Roswell, and Santa Fe. (See Figure 2 on page 3.) and abuse of Mexican ice methamphetamine. Although the population in New Mexico, and in the HIDTA region specifically, is relatively small, • Some New Mexico-based drug trafficking the region’s proximity to Mexico and transporta- organizations (DTOs) are rerouting some tion infrastructure, as well as the presence of well- drug shipments that they traditionally shipped established DTOs with direct links to Mexican car- from Mexico through Texas to new smuggling tels, ensure its role as a principal drug smuggling routes through Arizona and, to a lesser extent, area and transshipment and distribution center for California because of intense law enforcement illicit drugs available in the HIDTA region and pressure and high levels of violence in the El many other U.S. drug markets. For example, New Paso, Texas/Juárez, Mexico, plaza.1 Mexico-based Mexican traffickers supply drug markets in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, • Mexican DTOs and criminal groups are using Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, North children from Mexico who attend school in Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. the New Mexico HIDTA region to smuggle drugs from Mexico into New Mexico. Southwestern New Mexico—specifically Hidalgo, Luna, and Dona Ana Counties—shares a • More methamphetamine laboratories were 180-mile border with Mexico. More than half the seized in New Mexico HIDTA counties in length of this border is desolate public land that 2008 than in 2007, quite likely the result of contains innumerable footpaths, roads, and trails. decreased availability of ice methamphet- Additionally, many ranches are located along the amine produced in Mexico. border. These factors and minimal law enforcement • Mexican DTOs use any means to smuggle coverage make the area an ideal smuggling corridor illicit drugs into the region from Mexico; for drugs and other illicit goods and services— recently they have begun to use low-flying primarily alien smuggling into the United States aircraft, such as ultralights, to transport illicit and weapons and bulk cash smuggling into Mexico. drugs into New Mexico. Mexican DTOs smuggle multihundred-kilogram quantities of illicit drugs through this portion of the HIDTA region annually. Smaller quantities of HIDTA Overview illicit drugs are smuggled from Mexico through The New Mexico HIDTA region is composed Texas into the HIDTA region, a significant change of 16 counties—seven in northern New Mexico and from the last 2 years, when Texas was the preferred nine in southern New Mexico (see Figure 1 on page route for illicit drug smuggling into New Mexico. 1)—and has a population of more than 1.6 million. Intense law enforcement pressure and high levels of violence over the last 2 years, principally in the El 1. Plazas are specific cities or geographic locations along the Paso/Juárez plaza, have resulted in many New U.S.–Mexico border that are used to smuggle illicit drugs from Mexico into the United States. national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER 2 This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. Drug Market Analysis 2009 ARCHIVED New Mexico Figure 2. New Mexico HIDTA Region Transportation Infrastructure Four 84 KANSAS UTAH Corners 160 COLORADO 160 163 Region 285 385 550 OKLAHOMA 64 64 Farmington 287 160 Espanola Valley 64 87 Region 56 385 491 84 191 550 25 87 285 54 Santa Fe 40 Rio Rancho Amarillo Albuquerque 40 40 ALBUQUERQUE 191