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New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area ARCHIVED New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009 Questions and comments may be directed to New England/New York/New Jersey 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 050109 This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. ARCHIVED Product No. 2009-R0813-018 April 2009 New England 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 England 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 England Table of Contents Preface ...........................................................................................................................................................1 Strategic Drug Threat Developments ............................................................................................................2 HIDTA Overview ..........................................................................................................................................2 Drug Threat Overview ..................................................................................................................................3 Drug Trafficking Organizations ....................................................................................................................6 Production .....................................................................................................................................................8 Transportation .............................................................................................................................................10 Drug-Related Crime ....................................................................................................................................12 Abuse ..........................................................................................................................................................15 Illicit Finance ..............................................................................................................................................18 Outlook .......................................................................................................................................................19 Sources ........................................................................................................................................................21 national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER iii This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. New England 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 England Preface This assessment provides a strategic overview of the illicit drug situation in the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (NE HIDTA), highlighting significant trends and law enforcement con- cerns 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 devel- opments facing the NE HIDTA. Figure 1. New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area MAINE CHITTENDEN CUMBERLAND VERMONT NEW HAMPSHIRE ME HILLSBOROUGH VTNH NY MA NEW YORK CT RI PA ESSEX NJ MIDDLESEX MD DE Area of New MASSACHUSETTS VA England HIDTA WORCESTER SUFFOLK HAMPDEN PLYMOUTH PROVIDENCE ATLANTIC HARTFORD OCEAN CONNECTICUT RHODE ISLAND NEW HAVEN nd So u FAIRFIELD nd sla g I HIDTA County NEW Lon JERSEY national DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER 1 This document may contain dated information. It has been made available to provide access to historical materials. New England ARCHIVED High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Strategic Drug Threat HIDTA Overview Developments The NE HIDTA region comprises 13 counties • Numerous international, multistate, and local in 6 states; approximately 8.7 million individu- drug trafficking and money laundering orga- als reside in the region. (See Figure 1 on page 1.) nizations operate in the NE HIDTA region; Nine of the HIDTA counties are located in Mas- law enforcement agencies in the region suc- sachusetts and Connecticut, with the remaining cessfully dismantled or disrupted a signifi- four located in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode cant number of these organizations in 2008. Island, and Vermont. Two primary drug distribu- tion centers are located within the NE HIDTA • Law enforcement officials report that the region—the Hartford, Connecticut/Springfield, abuse of heroin, particularly South Ameri- Massachusetts, area in the west and the Lowell/ can (SA) heroin, and diverted controlled Lawrence, Massachusetts, area in the east. Drug prescription drugs (CPDs), particularly traffickers operating in these distribution centers opioids, is the primary drug abuse problem supply most consumer markets in the HIDTA in New England. Opioid abuse in the region region. The Providence, Rhode Island/Fall River, is driven in part by CPD abusers who switch Massachusetts, area is a secondary distribution to heroin because it is more potent and less center that supplies communities in Cape Cod, expensive. Massachusetts, an area that is located outside the NE HIDTA region. Boston, Massachusetts, • Law enforcement officials in some areas of New England’s largest city, is predominantly the NE HIDTA region report fluctuations in a consumer market; it is supplied primarily by the availability and price of cocaine; avail- distributors operating from Lawrence, Lowell, ability decreased and prices increased from and the New York City metropolitan area. Some usual levels in some locations during 2008. Boston-based distributors sell drugs in commu- • Violence among street gangs is increasing in nities located in the surrounding metropolitan the NE HIDTA region, particularly violence area, including Braintree, Cambridge, Chelsea, associated with territorial disputes. More- Framingham, Lynn, Quincy, and Weymouth over, street gangs in the region are recruiting (all in Massachusetts) as well as in Maine, New new members from middle schools and high Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The approximate schools and are enticing incarcerated gang wholesale value of drugs seized under NE HIDTA members back to gang life upon their release initiatives in 2008 totaled $44.6 million. (See from prison. Table 1 on page 6.) • Illicit drug abusers in the NE HIDTA re- An extensive air, land, and sea transportation gion are unwittingly being exposed to illicit infrastructure links the NE HIDTA region direct- substances that they do not intend to ingest, ly to numerous domestic and foreign markets that primarily through their use of synthetic drug are located in drug source and/or transit zones. tablets/capsules, which are increasingly Numerous land ports of entry (POEs) along the available in the region. U.S.–Canada border provide drug traffickers with various avenues by which to transport drug ship- ments from foreign locations to the NE HIDTA region. Six major interstate highways, three intraregional interstates, and a vast network of 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 England secondary and tertiary roadways link New Eng- Canada-based traffickers, who operate pri- land to major population centers throughout the marily from Montreal and Toronto, smuggle country. Additionally, Interstates 89, 90, 91, 93, significant quantities of marijuana, MDMA, and and 95 offer direct routes through New England CPDs to the region; they are also smuggling to locations at or near the U.S.–Canada border. increasing quantities of synthetic drug tablets/ (See Figure 2 on page 11.) International airports capsules that contain multiple substances in and maritime ports further facilitate illicit drug various combinations. Moreover, traffickers use smuggling into and through the area. Boston the NE HIDTA region as a transit zone for drug Logan International Airport
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