Outlook

The control that Mexican DTOs exert over drug trafficking in the Atlanta HIDTA region will increase, and these DTOs will continue to use the area to further expand into new markets throughout the eastern United States. Their operations will further envelop cities close to Atlanta, such as Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, rendering the cities secondary distribution centers for markets throughout the Southeast and Northeast.

Atlanta will be increasingly used by Mexican DTOs as a money consolidation point for illicit drug proceeds generated in East Coast drug markets. Consolidated funds will most likely be transported in bulk to Mexico by personal and commercial vehicles, including cloned vehicles. Mexican DTOs may also increase their reliance on Colombian money brokers to assist in laundering consolidated drug proceeds.

Powder methamphetamine production levels will remain low in the Atlanta HIDTA region, given the effectiveness of precursor chemical control regulations enacted in Georgia and surrounding states. However, Mexican DTOs will continue to supplant low supplies of locally produced methamphetamine with Mexican ice methamphetamine.

Indoor cannabis cultivation, particularly at  hydroponic grow sites in the Atlanta HIDTA region, will quite likely increase over the next year. Cuban DTO involvement in the cultivation of cannabis and production of high-potency marijuana in the region will quite likely also increase. The rising demand for high-potency marijuana may lead other traffickers in the region to become involved with indoor cannabis cultivation in an effort to capitalize on the area's growing marijuana trade.

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