National Drug Intelligence Center   North Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2008   June 2008

Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• The availability of domestically produced methamphetamine in the HIDTA region has declined annually since 2005 as a result of strict precursor chemical control legislation and successful law enforcement efforts focused on reducing the number of domestic methamphetamine laboratories; however, ice methamphetamine from Mexico has become one of the principal drug threats in the HIDTA region.
   
• Firearms smuggling from the United States to Mexico poses a serious problem, and it is quite likely that drug traffickers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area are smuggling weapons stolen from area gun shops and pawnshops into Mexico for use in drug trafficking and other illicit activities.
   
• Drug traffickers both in and outside the North Texas HIDTA region routinely use Dallas/Fort Worth as a staging area for illicit drugs and a consolidation point for bulk currency and monetary instruments¹ generated through their illicit activities and later smuggled into Mexico for eventual laundering or repatriation.

HIDTA Overview

The North Texas HIDTA region--encompassing 15 northern Texas counties (see Figure 1 in Preface), most of which are located in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, and Cleveland, Comanche, Muskogee, Oklahoma, Sequoyah, and Tulsa Counties in Oklahoma--is a national-level drug transportation and distribution center. Approximately 6.7 million residents (28 percent of the Texas population) reside in the Texas portion of the North Texas HIDTA region, and a significant number of those (over 4 million) reside in Dallas and Tarrant Counties, which include Dallas and Fort Worth. Over 1.7 million residents (48 percent of the Oklahoma population) reside in the Oklahoma portion of the North Texas HIDTA region, and more than 40 percent reside in Oklahoma County, which includes Oklahoma City.²

Drug traffickers often exploit the extensive transportation infrastructure in the North Texas HIDTA region to transport illicit drugs and return drug proceeds to source areas. They primarily transport illicit drugs to the area overland along interstate, U.S., and state highways; they also use bus lines, railways, and couriers aboard domestic and international aircraft to transport illicit drugs. For example, Mexican DTOs smuggle illicit drugs, namely marijuana, heroin, and cocaine, on Mexican-owned bus lines because of the connections from Mexico to intended destinations (Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and beyond) and the ability of couriers to blend in with the large number of legitimate passengers who also use those services. Drug traffickers also use the U.S. postal service and commercial mail shipping services as conveyances for transporting illegal drugs and their proceeds.

Interstate 35 is the primary north-south transportation corridor leading directly from the Southwest Border at Laredo--one of the busiest ports of entry (POEs) in the United States--to Dallas/Fort Worth and Oklahoma City. Interstates 40 and 44 pass through Oklahoma City, and Interstates 20, 30, and 45 transit the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area. Interstate 27 extends north from Lubbock and connects with I-40 at Amarillo, Texas. (See Figure 2.) Although I-10 does not traverse any North Texas HIDTA counties, drug traffickers use that route to access I-20, which passes through Dallas/Fort Worth, extends east into South Carolina, and connects with the I-95 corridor, a major north-south route. While a significant portion of the illicit drugs smuggled into the area from Mexico are destined for distribution in the North Texas HIDTA region, the region also serves as a transshipment point for illicit drugs transported to other U.S. drug markets, including those in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee.

Figure 2. North Texas HIDTA transportation infrastructure.

d-link

The North Texas HIDTA region also is home to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), the busiest airport in Texas and the third-busiest in the world. DFW serves 60 million passengers annually and offers nearly 1,900 flights per day. The airport, which is located halfway between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, ranks eighth among U.S. airports for nonstop international air travel and has flights to 135 domestic and 36 international destinations, including Mexico, South America, Canada, Central America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. Almost 65 percent of all international air cargo in Texas is handled at DFW. The airport is also 4 hours or less by air from every major North American market.

End Notes

1. Monetary instruments include U.S. or foreign coins currently in circulation, currency, traveler's checks in any form, money orders, and negotiable instruments or investment securities in bearer form, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
2. Population numbers are based on U.S. Census annual estimates of population for counties as of July 1, 2007.

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