Nigerian groups trafficking in SEA heroin are sophisticated; they are modifying transportation routes and methods of concealment. Nigerians typically have used air passenger couriers who ingested balloons filled with heroin, boarded flights originating in international locations such as Bangkok, Thailand, and entered the United States at airports in Chicago, New York, or other major cities. When they are used, Nigerian-employed couriers now arrive at international airports in midsize U.S. cities where there are fewer USCS officials. However, Nigerian trafficking groups appear to be shifting from employing air passenger couriers to using parcel packages for transportation. Seizure data also indicate that traffickers are increasingly using the mail and parcel package services to transport heroin into Chicago.

Mexican DTOs transport Mexican heroin to Chicago employing the same methods used to ship cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana. Mexican heroin is smuggled into the United States primarily through ports of entry along the Southwest Border via body carriers (1-2 kilograms) or private vehicles (2-5 kilograms). Colombian criminals are collaborating with Mexican criminals who act as transportation specialists and are employing Mexican body carriers to smuggle SA heroin into the United States across the Southwest Border. According to DEA, heroin seizures in Durango, Mexico, in 1999 reveal that the Herrera DTO is still involved in the heroin trade.

Chicago serves as the primary distribution hub for the four principal types of heroin (SEA, SA, Mexican brown powdered and black tar, and SWA) in the Great Lakes Region. Heroin in the Central District of Illinois is distributed primarily from Chicago and secondarily from St. Louis. Reports from DEA offices in the Great Lakes Region, as well as from cities outside the region such as St. Louis and Atlanta, pinpoint Chicago as a major distribution center for heroin in their jurisdictions. Responses to the National Drug Threat Survey 2000 also demonstrate that states within the region point to Chicago as the distribution center for heroin transported into their jurisdictions.

Figure 3. Cities that reported Chicago
 as a heroin distribution center or destination.

 
d-link

Nigerian heroin smugglers typically sell to Nigerian wholesalers, who in turn sell to high-level members of major African-American street gangs such as the Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords for retail distribution. Nigerian criminal groups are responsible for wholesale distribution of most of the SEA heroin shipped into Chicago. SEA heroin, which is 80-90 percent pure, is being sold between Nigerian traffickers for $80,000-$110,00 per kilogram. Wholesalers in Chicago usually sell heroin without cutting it to minimize their handling of the product and their exposure to law enforcement.

The relationship between Nigerians and African-American gangs is an important aspect of the heroin trade in Chicago. The children of Nigerian-born wholesalers are now acting as intermediaries with street gangs in order to bridge the generation gap. These second-generation offspring in their early to mid-20s are in charge of negotiating wholesale drug deals between their parents, family, or tribal members and the street gang placing the order. The business relationship between these Nigerian children and the gangs is further reinforced through social bonds such as Nigerian males dating female gang members. High-level gang members or affiliates are not purchasing heroin only from Nigerian heroin wholesalers in Chicago; they are now recruiting couriers and taking receipt of heroin in Southeast Asia for both wholesale and retail distribution in Chicago. In many cases, Nigerian criminal groups have assumed the role of heroin brokers for the Chicago street gangs to further insulate themselves from law enforcement.

Colombian DTOs are increasing the SA heroin supply in the Chicago area. SA heroin, like SEA heroin, has a high purity level. SA heroin is between 80 and 95 percent pure at the wholesale level and is cut to a purity of 30-60 percent at the street level. The introduction and increased availability of SA heroin caused Nigerian wholesalers to lower the price of SEA heroin in order to remain competitive. The price of white heroin has dropped from approximately $140,000 per kilogram to $60,000-$80,000 per kilogram over the past 5 years.

Mexican DTOs distribute Mexican brown powdered and, to a lesser extent, black tar heroin in Chicago. The Mexican DTOs are undercutting SA and SEA heroin prices in Chicago and other cities in an attempt to increase their market share with high purity (60-85 percent) Mexican heroin. Mexican black tar heroin purchased in southern California for $16,000 to $40,000 per kilogram can be resold in Chicago for several times that amount and still undercut the price of both SEA and SA heroin. Operation Tar Pit, a 2-year investigation of the Oscar Hernandez DTO based in Nayarit, Mexico, culminated in more than 200 arrests in June 2000. This DTO distributed about 36 kilograms of Mexican heroin per month--9 kilograms of black tar and 27 kilograms of brown powdered heroin--across the United States to Chicago and more than 20 other cities. Distribution was managed from a central cell located in Los Angeles. Couriers were primarily young females who body carried up to a kilogram of heroin aboard commercial airlines and buses. Parcel package services were also used to ship the heroin across the United States. This DTO, composed almost entirely of illegal aliens, is believed to be typical of Mexican heroin trafficking organizations: it was structured vertically, organized on family ties, and communicated in Spanish.

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Most retail heroin sales in Chicago take place on the West Side in a vast open-air drug market dominated by African-American street gangs such as the Gangster Disciples and the Vice Lords. These gangs are highly organized and control all aspects of the drug market. High-level gang members typically purchase uncut SEA heroin from Nigerian wholesalers in 100-gram to 1-kilogram quantities. Nigerian wholesalers use Nigerian taxicab drivers to deliver the heroin from the Broadway and Clark area on the North Side to the West Side. Gang members oversee the cutting, packaging, and retail distribution of the heroin. The heroin is cut with laxatives or baby powder to approximately 25 to 35 percent purity in a West Side apartment or house and then packaged in small squares of aluminum foil.

Heroin sales on the West Side are conducted openly on street corners. Single doses of approximately 100 milligrams are sold in unmarked aluminum foil squares or rectangles for $10 each. Occasionally the foil squares are placed in plastic bags in case they need to be secreted in the seller's mouth or other body orifice. At least half of the heroin sales on the West Side are made to white suburban users who drive into West Side neighborhoods to purchase $100 to $150 worth of heroin. They purchase heroin for personal use and may supply friends at cost or slightly above cost to support their own habit. Many of these sales occur on the West Side near off ramps of the Eisenhower Expressway and other major arteries to allow easy access for heroin users from the suburbs.

Security is an important aspect of the retail heroin trade. Heroin dealers want their customers to return and therefore protect their customers. Customers purchase at the same locations on a regular basis to ensure that they receive a quality product.

The typical retail heroin seller on the West Side of Chicago is a 15- to 20-year-old African-American male gang member. These low-level gang members can easily be replaced if arrested. Sellers are usually supplied with a "pack" of heroin consisting of 11 doses of heroin packaged in approximately 100-milligram quantities in aluminum foil squares. Sellers must return the proceeds from 10 sales and can pocket the money received from the other dose as a sales commission. Younger gang members, on bicycles or on foot, act as runners to supply sellers from a nearby house or apartment. The main supply of heroin and the collected money are usually kept in separate locations. Gangs employ lookouts to warn sellers of law enforcement presence. Lookouts work in shifts and are paid approximately $50 per day. Street corner heroin sellers usually deal only in heroin; other gang members sell crack or other drugs in the same block.

Heroin sales on the West Side occur at all hours of the day but peak during the morning and evening rush hours and during the lunch hour. A growing percentage of heroin abusers are white, middle-class employees and students who make their purchases during these hours. During peak periods, crowds of 100 or more gather to make heroin purchases. Gang members line up customers in rows of 4 and routinely search them for pagers, cell phones, and badges. Once gang members establish order and "clear" the customers, the heroin sales are made.

According to a 1996 National Institute of Justice survey of heroin users, retail heroin purchases in Chicago typically take place outdoors (91.8 percent) and in the drug abuser's own neighborhood (65.6 percent). Hispanic street gangs are primarily responsible for retail distribution of Mexican brown powdered and black tar heroin in the Hispanic communities on the North Side of Chicago. Sales typically take place in areas such as Humboldt Park where users typically are older addicts who prefer Mexican heroin. Transactions usually take place early in the morning as gang members drive through the park and make deliveries. Heroin can also be purchased in open-air drug markets on the South Side of Chicago, but sellers are more cautious about their customers. Heroin and other drugs are also sold at many bars throughout the Chicago area. Customers must have a contact in these establishments in order to make a purchase. Independent heroin dealers can be found in the various ethnic communities in the Chicago area. For example, Asian criminal groups sell heroin at the retail level within their communities. These dealers typically transact their business via pagers and cell phones, and delivery normally takes place in a public area.

End Notes

4. A heroin/morphine-related death is one in which the Medical Examiner has concluded that heroin/morphine use contributed to the death, but was not its sole cause.

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