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Drug Trafficking Organizations

Mexican DTOs dominate drug trafficking throughout the North Texas HIDTA region. These criminal organizations have sophisticated command-and-control centers in Mexico and the North Texas area and control most of the drug trafficking operations throughout the Southwest. According to HIDTA data, 32 drug trafficking and money laundering organizations with an international scope of operation were identified as active in the North Texas HIDTA region during 2008. Most of these organizations are Mexican and more than half have been linked to Consolidated Priority Organization Targets (CPOTs).7 Several major DTOs--including the Gulf, Sinaloa, and Juárez Cartels--are active in the North Texas HIDTA region; however, the Gulf Cartel poses the primary organizational threat to the region.

The Gulf Cartel, whose leadership includes Jorge Eduardo Costilla-Sánchez, Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas-Guillén, and Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano, currently poses the greatest drug organizational threat within the North Texas HIDTA region.8 This cartel maintains control of the lucrative smuggling routes through Nuevo Laredo/Laredo, Reynosa/McAllen, and Matamoros/Brownsville. From these border cities the Gulf Cartel has easy access to the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area.

Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano, the senior security chief for the Gulf Cartel, is in charge of the Los Zetas enforcement organization. Los Zetas is an internal security arm of the Gulf Cartel. The original Los Zetas consisted of members of the Grupo Aeromovil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE), a Mexican Special Forces group trained to locate and apprehend drug traffickers. They were originally recruited in the late 1990s by Osiel Cárdenas-Guillén, then head of the Gulf Cartel, to act as enforcers and security for his organization and its operations. Following the arrest (March 2003) and extradition (January 2007) of Osiel Cárdenas-Guillén, Los Zetas was incorporated into the operations of the Gulf Cartel to the extent that the names Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel became synonymous. Los Zetas has since expanded beyond its enforcement and security services to become fully engaged in trafficking illicit drugs to the United States.

Investigative intelligence indicates that Lazcano-Lazcano's top lieutenant, Miguel Angel Treviño-Morales (reputed commander of the Nuevo Laredo plaza),9 controls numerous transportation and distribution cells located in the North Texas HIDTA region. Several members of Treviño-Morales's immediate and extended family have resided in the northeastern Texas area for many years. As a result, Treviño-Morales has intimate knowledge of and trusted associates in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, which he exploits to further the drug trafficking operations of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.

Several large-scale investigations that resulted in multiple arrests and drug seizures in 2008 demonstrate the Gulf Cartel's influence over drug trafficking and money laundering activities in the North Texas HIDTA region as well as throughout the United States. Project Reckoning was a 15-month multiagency investigation that targeted the Gulf Cartel and its smuggling operations. As part of Project Reckoning, federal, state, and local law enforcement officers (in the jurisdiction of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas) conducted Operation Dos Equis and Operation Vertigo, both of which focused on Gulf Cartel members who operated cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking cells in the North Texas area. The two operations resulted in the arrests of more than 30 drug traffickers and the seizure of more than $1 million in cash, 300 kilograms of cocaine, 360 pounds of ice methamphetamine, numerous weapons, and an explosive device. A second phase of Project Reckoning led to the arrests of more than 40 drug traffickers with links to the Gulf Cartel in several states, including Texas and Oklahoma. Overall, Project Reckoning resulted in hundreds of arrests, the dismantlement or disruption of numerous Gulf Cartel distribution cells, the seizure of thousands of kilograms of illicit drugs, and the indictment of several Gulf Cartel leaders, including federal fugitives (and CPOTs) Ezequiel Cárdenas-Guillén, Jorge Eduardo Costilla-Sánchez, and Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano.

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Drug Trafficking Organizations, Criminal Groups, and Gangs

Drug trafficking organizations are complex organizations with highly defined command-and-control structures that produce, transport, and/or distribute large quantities of one or more illicit drugs.

Criminal groups operating in the United States are numerous and range from small to moderately sized, loosely knit groups that distribute one or more drugs at the retail level and midlevel.

Gangs are defined by the National Alliance of Gang Investigators' Associations as groups or associations of three or more persons with a common identifying sign, symbol, or name, the members of which individually or collectively engage in criminal activity that creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

Mexican drug traffickers are the dominant group trafficking illicit drugs in the North Texas HIDTA region; however, gangs and criminal groups are also involved at varying levels in drug trafficking activities in the region. (See text box above.) Most street gangs, prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) generate income from drug trafficking. Many of the most active gangs in the North Texas HIDTA region are Hispanic and have a propensity for violence. Those include, but are not limited to, gangs listed in Table 5.

Table 5. Active Hispanic Gangs in the Major Drug Markets of the North Texas HIDTA Region, 2008

City Gang Type
Dallas Eastside Homeboys Street
Tango Blast10 Prison clique/Street
Pleasant Grove Vatos (PGV) Street
Texas Syndicate Prison
Varrio North Side (VNS) Street
Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos (HPL) Prison
Fort Worth Varrio Centro (VC) Street
Varrio Diamond Hill (VDH) Street
Southern United Raza Trece (Surtrece) Street
Bandidos (Hispanic and Caucasian members) OMG
Oklahoma City Southside Locos (Sureños) Street
Grande Barrio Centrales (GBC) Street
Grande Barrio Locos (Juaritos 387) Street
Tulsa East Side Longos Street
Juaritos Street
Latin Kings Street
Sureños Street

Source: Law enforcement interviews.

Intelligence indicates that Asian criminal groups, primarily Vietnamese, control most of the trafficking and distribution of hydroponic or high-potency marijuana and MDMA in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Laotian criminal groups and gangs are also active in drug trafficking, but not to the level of the Vietnamese criminal groups. Asian criminal groups obtain most hydroponic and high-potency marijuana available in the area from established Asian, predominantly Vietnamese, sources of supply operating in California, primarily in the Los Angeles and Santa Cruz areas. However, they also obtain some hydroponic and high-potency marijuana from suppliers in other domestic markets--including Seattle, Washington; Chicago, Illinois; and Houston, Texas--and cultivate cannabis locally for additional quantities of the high-potency drug. Asian gangs are the primary retail-level distributors of hydroponic and high-potency marijuana in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. These Asian criminal groups and gangs obtain MDMA from Asian sources of supply in the northwestern United States and Vancouver, Canada, for distribution in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. However, since the availability of MDMA in the area exceeds local demand, Asian criminal groups frequently transship the drug to secondary distribution locations, such as Oklahoma City, Norman, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Des Moines, Iowa. To further facilitate the trafficking of MDMA in Oklahoma, some Asian criminal group members are establishing relationships and conducting business with members of African American criminal groups in the Oklahoma City area.

Table 6. Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Organizations Operating in the North Texas HIDTA, 2008

Scope of Organization Number of Organizations Ethnicity/Nationality
of Organizations
Size of
Organizations
Drugs Trafficked Counties of
Operation
Drug Source Areas Drug
Destinations
Drug Money
Laundering
Total
International 28 4 32 African American, Albanian, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic, Laotian, Mexican, Vietnamese, multi-ethnic 5 to 70 members Cocaine, heroin, marijuana, MDMA, methamphetamine Oklahoma: Oklahoma, Muskogee, Tulsa
Texas: Collin, Dallas, Tarrant
Canada, Colombia, Mexico, United States Texas (Dallas), unknown destinations
Multistate 17 0 17 African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Mexican, multi-ethnic 5 to 40 members Amphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, MDMA Oklahoma: Oklahoma, Tulsa
Texas: Angelina, Dallas, Smith
Mexico, United States (Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Texas) Unknown destinations
Local 21 0 21 African American, Asian, Caucasian, Cuban, Hispanic, Mexican, multi-ethnic 5 to 30 members Cocaine, LSD, marijuana, methamphetamine Oklahoma: Cleveland, Tulsa
Texas: Dallas, Gregg, Smith, Tulsa
Mexico, United States
(Oklahoma, Texas), unknown source areas

Texas (Dallas, Smith), unknown destinations

Source: North Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

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African American criminal groups and gangs are primarily involved in crack cocaine conversion and distribution in the North Texas HIDTA region; however, some of these groups and gangs also distribute other drugs, including PCP, MDMA, and marijuana. (See Table 7.) For example, in June 2008, federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Texas indicted 12 members of an African American drug trafficking group that had been operating in Oak Cliff, a suburb of Dallas. This group stored a variety of illicit drugs and their proceeds in four houses in the area and distributed the drugs from those locations, one of which was within 1,000 feet of a middle school. They distributed gallon quantities of PCP and multipound quantities of marijuana on a monthly basis in the area. They obtained the PCP from a California-based supplier who shipped multiounce quantities of the drug to Dallas through commercial shipping companies. At the time of the suspects' arrests, law enforcement officers seized more than 2 gallons of liquid PCP, approximately 4,000 MDMA tablets, 30 pounds of marijuana, nearly $30,000 in cash, numerous firearms, and multiple vehicles.

Table 7. Ethnicities of Drug Trafficking Groups Identified in North Texas HIDTA Initiatives, by Drug, 2008

Cocaine Methamphetamine Heroin Marijuana MDMA
African American
Albanian
Asian
Caucasian
Colombian
Cuban
Mexican
Vietnamese
African American
Asian
Caucasian
Cuban
Mexican
Puerto Rican
Vietnamese
African American
Caucasian
Mexican
African American
Asian
Caucasian
Cuban
Laotian
Mexican
Vietnamese
African American
Albanian
Asian
Caucasian
Laotian
Mexican
Puerto Rican
Vietnamese

Source: North Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

Drug traffickers and gang members operating in the North Texas HIDTA region exploit numerous communication devices and methods to facilitate their illegal activities. They primarily use prepaid cellular telephones, including those equipped with direct connect/push-to-talk capabilities, to communicate with one another and with their customers. Drug traffickers in the North Texas HIDTA region are also increasingly using text messaging to communicate with one another. Many traffickers use prepaid cellular telephones, such as Boost Mobile-branded Nextels,11 because no identification is required when obtaining them. In addition, many models of these phones are inexpensive, making it easy for traffickers to acquire new or multiple phones. Most traffickers and gang members have multiple phones, and for security purposes they generally replace them with new ones every 30 to 45 days or whenever a coconspirator is arrested or detained by police. Many higher-level traffickers compartmentalize their communications, using one phone to talk to sources of supply, lieutenants, or other individuals within their organization and a separate cellular telephone to speak with customers, couriers, or other individuals outside the organization. Lower-level gang members often use their cellular phones to take videos and still pictures of their criminal activities. Some drug traffickers and street gang members also exploit the Internet for drug-related communications, often using free web-based email, such as Hotmail and Yahoo, and Internet sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube to locate drug distributors, set up drug transactions, promote gang activity, and communicate threats. Gang members in the Oklahoma City area also use Bebo12 and BlackPlanet.com13 Internet sites to actively recruit members and to send coded gang messages documenting gang activity and graffiti.


Footnotes

7. A Consolidated Priority Organization Target (CPOT) designation is reserved for significant narcotics traffickers who are believed to be the leaders of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) responsible for the importation of large quantities of narcotics into the United States.
8. In January 2007 the Mexican Government extradited Osiel Cárdenas-Guillén, the former head of the Gulf Cartel, to the United States. Since that time, the Gulf Cartel's leadership structure has undergone an internal struggle, with several individuals vying for control of the cartel. Recent intelligence indicates that the Gulf Cartel may have separated into two organizations: one headed by Jorge Eduardo Costilla-Sánchez and Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas-Guillén, and the other by Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano.
9. "Plaza" refers to a specific city or geographic location along the U.S.-Mexico border that is used to smuggle illicit drugs from Mexico into the United States.
10. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Correctional Institutions Division reports that Tango Blast is a prison clique--a group of offenders who have little or no structure with vague or few, if any, rules and are involved in illegal activity. Generally these groups are formed along racial or geographic lines. Their underlying motive typically is to control their environment. In some instances, prison cliques evolve into street or prison gangs.
11. Boost Mobile is a brand of prepaid cellular telephone service that offers flexible wireless service options (pay by the month, day, or minute) with no contracts or credit checks. Different Boost Mobile phone models offer a variety of features, including walkie-talkie technology; multimedia (picture/video/audio), text, and instant messaging; wireless web access; and GPS (global positioning system) capabilities. These phones are available nationwide at major retail and independent wireless dealer locations.
12. Bebo is a popular social networking web site--similar to online sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube--that is accessible to a worldwide user base. According to Wikipedia, "Bebo" stands for "blog early, blog often." Bebo's users can restrict the information available to others and block access to their pages by unwanted visitors.
13. BlackPlanet.com is an online niche social network that is popular in the African American community.


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