Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• Several Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are struggling for control over the El Paso/Juárez plaza;¹ however, a controlling organization has not yet been established. They use the region as a national-level distribution center and transshipment point for illicit drugs destined for major markets throughout the United States and as a staging and transit area for illicit drug proceeds smuggled to Mexico from these markets.

• Violent crime associated with the struggle among Mexican DTOs for control of the El Paso/Juárez plaza has spread to the U.S. side of the border, endangering law enforcement personnel and citizens in the West Texas HIDTA region.

• The potential for La Entrada al Pacifico, a proposed trade route expected to be completed in 2010, to become a significant smuggling corridor for illicit drugs and precursor chemicals originating in or transiting Mexico remains a concern of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials; however, the infrastructure of this trade route has not yet been developed to the extent that would support the volume of cargo shipments and truck traffic necessary for traffickers to conduct large-scale smuggling operations. (See Figure 2 in Transportation section.)

• Increasingly, illicit drugs transported through the West Texas HIDTA by Mexican DTOs are destined for markets in the eastern United States, primarily Atlanta.

HIDTA Overview

The West Texas HIDTA region, which encompasses 10 counties in West Texas that lie along a 520-mile section of the U.S.-Mexico border, is used by Mexican DTOs as a principal smuggling corridor and staging area for drug transportation to markets throughout the United States, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Houston, Miami, New York, and San Francisco. The ongoing violent struggle among Mexican DTOs for control of drug smuggling through the area substantiates its strategic importance to Mexican traffickers. Moreover, the West Texas HIDTA region's location along the U.S.-Mexico border poses an array of other national security and law enforcement issues for the HIDTA region, including alien smuggling, weapons transportation, and terrorist entry into the United States through and between ports of entry (POEs).

Most drugs smuggled into and through the region pass through the El Paso/Juárez plaza, a major drug smuggling corridor extending from the "boot heel" of New Mexico to the eastern boundary of Big Bend National Park. Mexican DTOs use El Paso, the most populous metropolitan area in West Texas, as a principal staging area, transshipment point, and distribution center for illicit drugs destined for drug markets throughout the nation. El Paso is located on Interstate 10, a major drug trafficking route that links the HIDTA region to many national-level drug markets using I-20 and I-25.

Mexican DTOs exploit the robust, legitimate cross-border economic activity and social interaction between El Paso and its sister city, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and, on a smaller scale, between Presidio and Ciudad Ojinaga, Mexico, to conduct their smuggling activities. The thriving maquiladora industry² is a major contributor to increased cross-border pedestrian, passenger vehicle, and commercial truck traffic--more than 200,000 U.S. and Mexican citizens traverse the border daily between these sister cities--creating ideal conditions for smuggling illicit drugs into the United States and returning drug proceeds to Mexico. Moreover, DTOs frequently arrange their smuggling activities to coincide with periods of high traffic volume, reducing the likelihood that their vehicles will be inspected. Mexican DTOs also use the sparsely populated arid desert and semiarid mountains and canyons of the West Texas HIDTA region as well as the numerous low-level water crossings along the Rio Grande River to conceal their smuggling activities. Big Bend National Park, which encompasses more than 800,000 acres along the U.S.-Mexico border in West Texas, is exploited by these traffickers, who take advantage of the remote areas and limited law enforcement presence in the park to smuggle drugs into the HIDTA region.

End Notes

1. A plaza is a geographic area in which drug smuggling is controlled by a drug trafficking organization (DTO).
2. Maquiladoras are factories that obtain duty-free materials and components from foreign suppliers, including U.S. suppliers, and use them to manufacture finished products, such as textiles, in Mexico and return the products to the foreign suppliers.

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