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

Abuse

According to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS),5 the number of methamphetamine-related admissions to publicly funded treatment facilities in Nevada exceeded those for any other substance of abuse, including alcohol, during 2007 (the latest year for which such data are available); this has been the case for the past several years. (See Table 4). In response to high levels of methamphetamine abuse in the state, the governor of Nevada commissioned a Governor's Working Group on Methamphetamine Use to fund methamphetamine-related substance abuse prevention, education, treatment, and law enforcement activities through 2009.

Table 4. Treatment Admissions to Publicly Funded Facilities in Nevada, by Substance, 2003-2007

Source: Treatment Episode Data Set.
Note: These figures represent the entire state of Nevada. (Information is based on administrative data reported through March 15, 2009.)

While methamphetamine is the most often reported substance of abuse for publicly funded treatment admissions in Nevada, diverted CPDs are cited in more drug-related deaths in Clark County than any other of substance of abuse. Moreover, the number of drug-related deaths associated with diverted CPDs in Clark County has increased each year since 2005 and more than doubled from 147 in 2005 to 338 in 2008. (See Table 5.)

Table 5. Drug-Related Deaths, Clark County, by Drug, 2005-2008

Source: Clark County Coroner's Office.

To Top      To Contents

Illicit Finance

The Nevada HIDTA region's proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border and extensive gaming and entertainment industries offer drug traffickers a variety of methods by which they can move and launder illegal drug proceeds. Mexican DTOs transport illicit drug proceeds primarily in bulk from the region to locations at or near the U.S.-Mexico border. Drug traffickers in midwestern and eastern markets often transport bulk cash through the Nevada HIDTA region en route to Mexico or source areas in northern California. For example, the Nevada Highway Patrol reports that bulk cash seized on I-80 is commonly destined for northern California. Traffickers generally smuggle bulk cash in hidden compartments in private and commercial vehicles that they drive to California or Mexico. Traffickers also ship bulk cash through parcel delivery services and, to a lesser extent, by couriers aboard commercial aircraft and buses. Additionally, some traffickers consolidate illicit proceeds generated in the region at local stash locations, combine them with funds generated in other regions of the country, and transport the proceeds in bulk to Mexico.

Many DTOs in the Nevada HIDTA region use local money services businesses (MSBs), traditional depository financial institutions, and money transmitters to launder drug proceeds, frequently in conjunction with bulk cash smuggling. Mexican DTOs often transmit illicit proceeds in structured6 amounts through MSBs to collection points in Southwest Border states, where the transmissions are cashed, and most of the money is then smuggled across the border. The funds are often deposited into a Mexican bank or a casa de cambio (exchange house) and then repatriated to the United States through electronic wires or bulk cash transportation by armored car or courier services.

DTOs, gangs, and independent dealers operating in the region also purchase tangible assets and invest in cash-intensive front business, such as restaurants, night clubs, and convenience stores that they use to commingle drug proceeds with legitimate business earnings. Additionally, they invest drug proceeds in residential real estate in an attempt to mask the illicit nature of their proceeds. They often purchase properties that need minor improvements, overvalue the improvements when completed, and later sell the properties to associates or complicit individuals for an inflated profit, enabling them to conceal the true nature of their proceeds.

Law enforcement and media reports indicate that individuals typically attempt to launder money through casinos by exchanging illicit cash for casino chips and then either cash in the chips as legitimate gambling winnings or wire-transfer the money as winnings to out-of-state accounts.

Footnotes

5. Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) is an annual compilation of data on the demographics and substance abuse problems of those admitted to substance abuse treatment. TEDS collects data on the approximately 1.8 million annual admissions to substance abuse treatment facilities, primarily those that receive some public funding. "Other Opiates" for TEDs data include nonprescription use of methadone, codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, opium, and other drugs with morphine-like effects.
6. A person structures a transaction if that person, acting alone, or in conjunction with or on behalf of other persons, conducts or attempts to conduct one or more transactions in currency, in any amount, at one or more financial institutions, on one or more days, in any manner, for the purpose of evading the reporting requirements under Title 31. "In any manner" includes but is not limited to the breaking down of a single sum of currency exceeding $10,000 into smaller sums, including sums at or below $10,000. The transaction or transactions need not exceed the $10,000 reporting threshold at any single financial institution on any single day in order to constitute structuring within the meaning of this definition.

End of page.