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National Drug
Intelligence Center Illinois Drug Threat Assessment January 2001 Overview
Commercial trucks, passenger vehicles, package delivery services, air packages or couriers, and railways are the most common means traffickers use to transport drugs into Chicago. Drugs concealed in shipments of legitimate goods, transported by private vehicle, or shipped via mail or package services have an excellent chance of reaching their destination because of the sheer volume of trucks, railcars, private vehicles, ships, and parcels that transit the state on a daily basis. In 1997, over $42 billion worth of freight was destined for Illinois from the major drug arrival zone states of Texas, California, Florida, New York, and New Jersey. Chicago is also home to the world's busiest rail yards and serves as the principal transshipment point for commodities shipped from Mexico to Canada and between the East and West Coasts. The combined interstate and state highway system in Illinois is a very efficient network for the movement of vehicular traffic within the state and to other parts of the country. O'Hare International Airport is among the busiest airports in the world, offering connections to over 60 international cities for both passengers and cargo. In 1997, O'Hare International Airport handled over $36 billion worth of foreign airfreight. The St. Louis Lambert International Airport serves downstate areas of Illinois with passenger and air cargo service. Chicago, a major Great Lakes port with connections to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway, has four general cargo harbors that handle almost 30 million metric tons of cargo annually. However, the truck, rail, and air shipments into Illinois dwarf the volume of maritime freight transiting the state. Chicago is home to the busiest postal facility in the world, and private parcel services also handle millions of packages each year.
Chicago's status as a major financial center presents opportunities for laundering the vast sums of money that are generated from the trafficking of drugs. Chicago is recognized as an important regional, national, and international financial center. Significant financial institutions located in Chicago include the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Federal Reserve Bank, as well as 300 U.S. banks and 40 foreign branch banks. Chicago is also the world headquarters for 39 of the Fortune 500 companies. Reports from the Chicago High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) and other federal law enforcement agencies indicate that Chicago is a hub for money laundering activity by major drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). Traditionally, money laundering in Chicago was accomplished by investing profits from illegal drug sales into legal, mostly cash, businesses such as nightclubs and grocery stores. Today, new and increasingly sophisticated money laundering techniques are being used. The Chicago HIDTA reports that some foreign banks operating in Chicago may not be as compliant with U.S. regulations as domestic banks. Many foreign banks with offices in Chicago are licensed in countries with lax banking laws and greater adherence to bank secrecy principles, both of which support money laundering activities. Money exchange houses and businesses that wire money are also used to transfer and conceal drug profits through wire transfers, money orders, and traveler's checks. U.S. Customs Service (USCS) intelligence confirms that illegal currency is also physically transported out of the Chicago area and ultimately smuggled out of the United States via cargo, passenger or private aircraft, or vessel. The state of Illinois, specifically the Chicago area, is the focal point for the flow of drugs into the Great Lakes Region. Chicago is the major hub for the delivery and transshipment of drugs throughout the Great Lakes Region and the Midwest. Three major types of trafficking groups are responsible for most of the drugs in Illinois. Mexican polydrug organizations, Colombian DTOs trafficking in cocaine and South American (SA) heroin, and Nigerian groups trafficking in Southeast Asian (SEA) heroin are the major transporters and wholesale distributors of drugs in Chicago. (See Table 1.) Table 1. Primary Drug Traffickers, Chicago, 2000
Source: Chicago HIDTA,
Threat Assessment FY2000. African-American and Hispanic street gangs have a virtual stranglehold on street-level distribution, which is their main source of income. Organized street gangs such as the Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, and Latin Kings control the distribution and retail sales of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana throughout the state. Most federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in Illinois cite the violent crime associated with gang-related drug trafficking as the most serious criminal threat to the state. Violent crime associated with street gangs, while declining in some major urban areas, is increasing in suburban and rural areas as these gangs expand their drug markets. Even though violent crime is declining in Chicago, almost half of residents surveyed in 1998 were fearful of neighborhood crime. This was the highest level of fear measured in the 12 cities that were surveyed.
production and abuse are expanding from bordering states (Missouri, Iowa, and Indiana) into rural areas of parts of the Central and Southern U.S. Attorney Districts. Other dangerous drugs such as MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy), ketamine, and GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) are becoming increasingly popular, particularly among young people in urban areas and in college towns. The availability of drugs in Illinois is at an all-time high. Drug seizures by law enforcement authorities have risen significantly since the early 1990s. The street value of drugs seized by the Chicago Police Department rose from $204 million to $348 million between 1998 and 1999. The Chicago Police Department Narcotics Division confiscated more drugs in the first 5 months of 1999 than in the previous 2 years combined. Cocaine and marijuana seizures by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have also increased dramatically since the early 1990s. Drug arrests in Illinois, one of a number of indicators used to measure both the availability and abuse of drugs, have increased markedly over the past two decades. The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority correlates the dramatic increases in arrests and treatment admissions to numerous factors. These include increased focus on drug enforcement by local police departments, increased visibility of specific drug markets, increased reporting by citizens of illegal drug activity, increased frequency of court-ordered drug treatment for convicted offenders, and increased resources allocated for drug enforcement and substance abuse treatment programs throughout Illinois. Drug arrests reached an all-time high in 1999, more than three times the number recorded in 1985. (See Chart 1.) During the early to mid-1980s, approximately 10 percent of individuals arrested under the Illinois Controlled Substances Act were sentenced to prison. This proportion increased to 30 percent by the end of the 1990s. Chart 1. Illinois State Drug Arrests
Federal criminal prosecutions also support the assertion that drug trafficking and abuse are a significant problem in Illinois. In fiscal year (FY) 1998, 50.7 percent (466) of federal sentences in Illinois were for primary drug offenses compared to 40.2 percent nationwide. Federal sentences for crack violations were well above the national average in all three Illinois districts. Other measures of the increase in drug abuse in Illinois are confirmed through healthcare statistics and deaths attributed to drug abuse. Statewide treatment admissions for all drugs more than tripled in the past decade according to the Illinois Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse (OASA). According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the rate of Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) emergency department (ED) mentions per 100,000 in Chicago has risen steadily, nearly doubling over the past decade. In addition, there were 803 drug-related deaths in Chicago in 1998, an increase of 32 percent over 1995 statistics. The abuse of drugs by Illinois high school students is occurring at an alarmingly high level. More than half of all students in the tenth through twelfth grades used drugs at least once in their lifetime, while nearly 25 percent used drugs in the past month. In 1995, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) funded a long-term study of Cook County cocaine and heroin abusers to estimate the number of hardcore drug abusers in the United States. Results of the study estimated that there could be over 330,000 hardcore cocaine and heroin abusers in Cook County, approximately 6 percent of the county population. See Table 2 for a profile of these chronic drug users. Table 2. Cocaine and Heroin Abusers, Cook County, 1995
End Notes1. Analytical judgment determined the threat posed by each drug type or category, taking into account quantitative and qualitative information on availability, demand, production and cultivation, transportation, and distribution as well as the effects of a particular drug on abusers and on society as a whole |
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Total Drug Arrests
Cannabis Control Act
Controlled Substances Act