National Drug Intelligence Center   Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009   March 2009

Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• Dominican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) that typically have been supplied by Colombian DTOs are increasingly distributing wholesale quantities of cocaine and heroin in the region because they have developed new sources of supply in the Caribbean (Puerto Rican and other Dominican criminal groups) and in Mexico.
   
• Mexican DTOs operating out of the southwestern United States are increasingly involved in cocaine trafficking in Virginia, especially in the Shenandoah Valley and the southern part of the state adjacent to the HIDTA region. Mexican DTOs that have established transshipment centers in Georgia and North Carolina are supplying cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine to the region.
   
• Central American DTOs and criminal groups from Guatemala and El Salvador are increasingly involved in cocaine trafficking in the HIDTA region.
   
• Law enforcement reporting indicates that wholesale cocaine availability was low in 2008 in most of the W/B HIDTA region.
   
• Law enforcement officials in the W/B HIDTA region report that the demand for high-potency marijuana is increasing. The number of indoor grow sites producing high-potency marijuana is increasing, especially in the Baltimore, Maryland, and Richmond, Virginia, areas.
   
• Controlled prescription drugs (CPDs), particularly controlled prescription narcotics, are increasingly being abused in the W/B HIDTA region by young, affluent suburbanites who acquire the drugs from friends and family and through doctor-shopping. Prescription narcotics also provide an alternative to heroin for abusers who view heroin use as too risky, too costly, or otherwise unattainable.
   
• Methadone-related deaths have increased substantially in the region, especially in Maryland and Virginia, primarily because of misuse or abuse by individuals who use methadone in combination with other CPDs, illicit drugs, or alcohol.
   
• The distribution of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy) is increasing, particularly in Washington, D.C., where African American retail-level drug dealers are now distributing the drug at open-air drug markets.

To Top     To Contents

HIDTA Overview

The W/B HIDTA region encompasses four distinct population centers--the Baltimore metropolitan area, the District of Columbia, northern Virginia, and the Richmond metropolitan area. The region encompasses the following city and county jurisdictions: Maryland (the city of Baltimore as well as Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Charles, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George's Counties); northern Virginia (the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Manassas along with Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William Counties); the Richmond metropolitan area (the cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg, and Richmond as well as Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, and Prince George Counties); and Washington, D.C.

Economic, demographic, and transportation factors make the W/B HIDTA region a fertile environment for drug trafficking and abuse. Some areas, such as inner-city Baltimore, Richmond, and Washington, D.C., are economically depressed, leading some residents to view drug trafficking as the only means of financial gain and drug abuse as a form of escape. Revitalization efforts in Washington, D.C., have included the demolition of several public housing projects and have resulted in the dispersion of drug- and gang-related problems to suburban areas, particularly in Maryland. The W/B HIDTA region has a large and increasing population; the combined Baltimore/Washington metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in the nation, with a current population of more than 8 million. The region is ethnically and racially diverse, including a growing Hispanic population, which has enabled Colombian, Dominican, Mexican and, increasingly, Guatemalan and Salvadoran criminal groups and gangs with ties to drug source and transit countries to operate more easily. Drug trafficking in the region is facilitated by an extensive transportation infrastructure that includes highways (Interstate 95 in particular), railway and bus systems, two international seaports, and four international airports with passenger and cargo services.

End of page.