National Drug Intelligence Center   New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009   April 2009

Production

Illicit drug production in the New Mexico HIDTA region primarily involves small-scale methamphetamine production, cannabis cultivation, and the conversion of powder cocaine to crack cocaine. Mexican DTOs and criminal groups in Jalisco, Sonora, and Sinaloa, Mexico, produce most of the methamphetamine available in the New Mexico HIDTA region. However, Mexican DTOs, criminal groups, and local independent traffickers are increasingly producing the drug in the HIDTA region. According to El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) National Seizure System (NSS) data, law enforcement officers in New Mexico HIDTA counties seized more methamphetamine laboratories in 2008 (42)6 than in 2007 (12), a noticeable shift from annual declines in local methamphetamine production since at least 2003.7 Most of the laboratories seized each year since 2003 were discovered in Bernalillo County. (See Table 2.) Declines in local production prior to 2008 are attributed to stringent precursor chemical control regulations, successful law enforcement efforts and public awareness campaigns in the United States, and increased availability of ice methamphetamine produced in Mexico. However, Mexican authorities prohibited ephedrine and pseudoephedrine imports into Mexico in 2008 and issued a ban on the use of both chemicals in Mexico in 2009. As a result, the availability of Mexican ice methamphetamine in New Mexico (and other U.S. locations) has declined, forcing many distributors to cut the drug to stretch supplies. For example, methamphetamine in the New Mexico HIDTA region historically had been 80 to 90 percent pure at the wholesale level but is currently only 40 to 50 percent pure. Some law enforcement officials report that methamphetamine abusers who were accustomed to high-purity ice methamphetamine are now attempting to produce their own personal-use quantities of methamphetamine. Most methamphetamine production recipes are readily available on the Internet for methods including "one-pot" (also referred to as "Lord Almighty," "Crash," or "Shake and Bake"), red phosphorus, and Nazi; all of these production methods are relatively easy and can yield high-purity methamphetamine.

Table 2. Methamphetamine Laboratories Seized, by New Mexico HIDTA County, 2003-2008

Source: National Seizure System, as of January 4, 2009.

Mexican DTOs and criminal groups based in the Mexican states of Guerrero, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca, and Zacatecas produce most of the marijuana available in the New Mexico HIDTA region; however, small quantities of cannabis are cultivated locally--usually on federal public lands around the Rio Grande River.

Cuban, African American, and Hispanic criminal groups and street gangs are the principal crack producers in the New Mexico HIDTA region. In Albuquerque (Bernalillo County), the largest crack cocaine market in New Mexico, Cuban criminal groups control about half of the crack conversion and distribution. In Hobbs (Eddy County), the second-largest crack market, African American criminal groups are the principal crack converters. Crack distributors throughout the HIDTA region typically convert powder cocaine into crack cocaine in low-income inner-city neighborhoods on an as-needed basis, primarily to avoid the harsh penalties associated with possession and distribution of large quantities of the drug.

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Transportation

Mexican DTOs and criminal groups are the principal transporters of drugs to and through the New Mexico HIDTA region. These DTOs and criminal groups control plazas along the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico that they use to smuggle wholesale quantities of illicit drugs into the HIDTA region. Once in southern New Mexico, these traffickers and those who work on their behalf typically use Interstates 10, 25, 40, 54, 60, 180, and 380 to further transport illicit drugs to numerous U.S. drug markets. Mexican DTOs and criminal groups are increasingly smuggling illicit drugs to the area from Mexico through Arizona and, to a lesser extent, California. The amount of illicit drugs smuggled to the area from Mexico through Texas has diminished significantly.

Mexican traffickers also employ a significant number of backpackers and use pack animals to cross the border with illicit drugs (often marijuana), particularly in the Boot Heel region and farming areas west of Columbus, in the southwest portion of the state. The backpackers usually drop their drug loads at predetermined locations in the desert and walk to a waiting vehicle. Other DTO members later pick up the drugs and transport them to nearby stash houses for distribution. Mexican traffickers also use pack animals to transport drugs across the border.

Drug traffickers from many other states drive to New Mexico to purchase their drug supplies and then return home. For example, methamphetamine distributors and abusers from Colorado often travel to Farmington (located in the Four Corners region of New Mexico) to purchase wholesale quantities of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs for distribution or abuse in Colorado from Mexican DTOs operating in the area.

Drug traffickers also smuggle illicit drugs to and through the international airports situated in or near the New Mexico HIDTA region or transport illicit drugs to and through the region using rail, bus, package delivery services, and mail. Law enforcement reporting indicates that "mules" transport drugs on one-way commercial flights into Albuquerque, Phoenix, and southern California, where they purchase one-way tickets on Amtrak to major cities in the east and north. DTOs also smuggle illicit drugs into New Mexico using low-flying aircraft, such as ultralights. Most of these aircraft fly low to avoid radar detection and often land at one of the numerous ranches in the region.

Footnotes

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