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National Drug Intelligence Center |
Powder cocaine often is converted to crack by distributors in the Michigan HIDTA region. Crack cocaine poses significant concern in the region because of its association with property and violent crimes committed by distributors and abusers of the drug. Typically, African American crack cocaine distributors convert powder cocaine to crack in private residences, drug houses, or hotel rooms. Some dealers in Detroit use microwaves to "cook" their crack because they believe this method causes air pockets to form in the crack, increasing the volume of the product and hence increasing their profits. Once converted, crack usually is packaged in small, personal use quantities and distributed near the production site. Crack cocaine distributors often commit violent crimes ranging from physical assault to homicide in order to control local drug operations, while abusers of the drug commit burglary, retail fraud, and robbery to obtain the drug or money to purchase the drug.
Most of the marijuana available in the HIDTA region is produced in Mexico or Canada; however, marijuana from local indoor and outdoor production is also available throughout the region. The Michigan HIDTA reports that seizures of cannabis plants in the HIDTA region more than doubled from 2007 (9,964 kg) to 2008 (20,950 kg); indoor plants eradicated increased from 1,923 kilograms in 2007 to 3,546 kilograms in 2008, and outdoor plants eradicated increased from 7,645 kilograms in 2007 to 17,404 kilograms in 2008. Law enforcement in southwest Michigan reports an increase in marijuana produced locally, particularly hydroponic marijuana that is sold for as much as $5,000 per pound, compared with less potent commercial-grade marijuana that is sold for approximately $800 to $1,000 per pound. Increased marijuana production in the HIDTA region is most likely a response on the part of domestic producers to the growing demand for high-potency marijuana and the higher profits that it generates. Indoor marijuana production typically takes place in houses or apartments privately owned or rented by independent growers, usually African American and Caucasian. Some growers operate large-scale grows in rented houses or apartments, or in commercial buildings that have multiple rooms in which to propagate, cultivate, and dry plants. Outdoor marijuana production occurs in the region, particularly on state-owned property, on other open lands, or in agricultural fields among legitimate crops. Additionally, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, which became effective on December 4, 2008, allows qualified and registered patients to possess and cultivate specified amounts of marijuana (see text box). Law enforcement authorities in states such as California and Washington with established medical marijuana laws report that although these laws allow the cultivation, distribution, and use of marijuana for medical purposes, some individuals exploit these laws by deliberately exceeding the allowable limits to illegally produce and distribute marijuana.
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Medical Marijuana Law Passed in Michigan The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act became effective December 4, 2008, making Michigan the thirteenth state to sanction the use of medical marijuana for qualifying patients. A qualifying patient is a person who has been diagnosed by a physician as having a qualifying debilitating medical condition. Under the act, a qualifying patient who has been issued and possesses a registry identification card is permitted to possess an amount of marijuana that does not exceed 2.5 ounces of usable marijuana, and is allowed to cultivate, or designate a caregiver to cultivate, 12 plants kept in an enclosed, locked facility. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Program (MMMP), a state registry program within the Bureau of Health Professions at the Michigan Department of Community Health, will issue registry identification cards to patients qualified to use marijuana for medical purposes and to individuals qualified to serve as primary caregivers on behalf of designated patients. A primary caregiver is a person, at least 21 years old, who has agreed to assist with a patient's medical use of marijuana and who has never been convicted of a felony involving illegal drugs. A caregiver can assist no more than five patients. The MMMP will be fully operational on April 4, 2009. Source: State of Michigan. |
Methamphetamine production in the Michigan HIDTA region has increased significantly in the last year, as producers are increasingly using the "one-pot" method to produce the drug. (See "One-Pot" Methamphetamine Production Increases in the Michigan HIDTA Region text box.) According to National Seizure System (NSS) reporting, methamphetamine laboratory incidents in HIDTA counties more than tripled from 2007 (58 incidents) to 2008 (183 incidents) after a steady decline since peaking in 2005 (221). Statewide legislation enacted in December 2005 that restricted the sale of and access to products containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, increased law enforcement efforts, and mandated public awareness campaigns effectively reduced local methamphetamine production by 74 percent from 2005 (221) to 2007 (58). However, producers have found alternative chemical sources of supply, and they increasingly employ simple production techniques such as the one-pot method to manufacture methamphetamine in the HIDTA region, particularly in Kalamazoo County. In fact, of the 183 recorded laboratory incidents in the HIDTA region in 2008, 132 were recorded in Kalamazoo County, the largest number of incidents ever recorded there.3 (See Figure 4.)
Figure 4. Methamphetamine Laboratory Incidents in the Michigan HIDTA Region, 2003-2008
Source: National Seizure System, data run January 5, 2009.
Local Caucasian and Mexican independent dealers are the primary methamphetamine producers, operating small-scale laboratories that yield a few grams to a few ounces per production cycle. Despite the small size of these laboratories, methamphetamine production at these laboratory sites poses significant dangers to laboratory operators, law enforcement, and first responders because of the high risk of laboratory fires, explosions, and the improper storage and disposal of chemicals and laboratory waste. Additionally, child abuse and neglect are common in households where methamphetamine is produced. In June 2008, for example, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan announced that a Kalamazoo resident had been indicted on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine on premises where children resided. At the residence, law enforcement officials seized a plastic bottle that had been used to produce methamphetamine using the "one-pot" method. Law enforcement officials also recovered a child's fishing pole that tested positive for methamphetamine.
Traffickers use various methods and means of conveyance to transport illicit drugs into and through the Michigan HIDTA region, principally from sources of supply along the Southwest Border and from Canada, but also from other domestic drug markets. Private and commercial vehicles are the most common type of conveyance used by traffickers transporting drugs to the region. Private automobiles and motor homes are often equipped with false compartments or contain manufactured voids in which traffickers conceal drugs. Drug shipments in commercial vehicles are also hidden in false compartments and manufactured voids and are often commingled with legitimate products such as building materials, car parts, heavy machinery, or produce. Traffickers also hire couriers to transport illicit drugs on aircraft, buses, trains, and watercraft. Some traffickers ship drugs into the region through the U.S. Postal Service and parcel delivery services.
African American and Mexican drug traffickers are the primary transporters of illicit drugs to Detroit and other major drug markets in the Michigan HIDTA region; they generally smuggle illicit drugs from various locations along the Southwest Border and from other drug markets in the United States. These traffickers have developed connections to Mexican sources of supply for multihundred-kilogram quantities of cocaine and marijuana that they distribute primarily throughout the Michigan HIDTA region or in neighboring domestic markets. They also smuggle some of the cocaine to Canada. African American and Mexican traffickers also transport heroin from sources in Chicago; Miami; New York City; Newark, New Jersey; and southern California, and from other sources along the Southwest Border.
Asian traffickers are the primary transporters of high-potency marijuana and MDMA into the region from Canada. Asian traffickers often recruit Indo-Canadian truck drivers to transport these drugs into Michigan and to transport cocaine and drug proceeds derived from sales in the United States to Canada. Asian traffickers recruit college age individuals at Windsor area nightclubs that are frequented by Detroit area residents; many of these clubs admit individuals as young as 19. The traffickers pay the recruits to smuggle drugs across the U.S.-Canada border and deliver them to specific locations in Detroit. To maintain control over the recruited couriers, traffickers obtain their names and addresses and use this information to threaten them or their families if the drugs do not reach the intended destination. These traffickers also recruit members of the NEXUS program,4 an international air, land, and maritime border crossing initiative, to transport illicit drugs across the U.S.-Canada border.
Other criminal groups also transport illicit drugs into the Michigan HIDTA region for local distribution. Albanian drug traffickers transport high-potency Canadian marijuana and MDMA into the region. Caucasian, African American, and Middle Eastern criminal groups also smuggle MDMA into Michigan from Canada. College age individuals in Michigan travel to Canada to purchase small quantities of MDMA for personal use and limited distribution to friends and associates. Caucasian and Middle Eastern criminal groups transport cocaine and marijuana. West African criminal groups, particularly Nigerian groups, transport limited quantities of heroin into the region.
3.
Based on National Seizure System (NSS) figures, which include statistics recorded
from 2000 to present for the Michigan HIDTA counties.
4.
Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the NEXUS program allows prescreened,
low-risk travelers to be processed with little or no delay by U.S. and Canadian
officials at designated highway lanes, airports, and marine locations.
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