Appendix C. OCDETF Regional Summaries

Great Lakes Regional Overview

Regional Overview

The Great Lakes OCDETF Region encompasses Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the Northern and Central U.S. Attorney Districts of Illinois. It includes the Chicago, Lake County, Michigan, Milwaukee, and Ohio HIDTAs and 13 U.S. Attorney Districts. The region comprises urban areas including Chicago (IL), Cleveland (OH), Columbus (OH), Detroit (MI), Gary (IN), Indianapolis (IN), Louisville (KY), Milwaukee (WI), and Minneapolis/St. Paul (MN), as well as large, sparsely populated agricultural areas, which often are used by traffickers to produce methamphetamine and marijuana. Chicago and Detroit serve as the principal wholesale illicit drug distribution centers in the region, supplying drug markets both in and outside the region.

Drug Threat Overview

The distribution and abuse of cocaine (particularly crack) and, to a lesser extent, heroin and methamphetamine pose the most significant drug threats to most metropolitan areas of the region, while the distribution and abuse of methamphetamine pose the greatest drug threat in rural areas and smaller cities. Marijuana is the most widely available and frequently abused illicit drug in the region but generally poses a lower threat, since its distribution and abuse rarely are associated with violent crime, as is the case with cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. The threats posed by other dangerous drugs and the diversion and abuse of pharmaceuticals vary but usually are lower than the threats posed by other major drugs.

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Strategic Regional Developments

• The influence of Mexican DTOs over illicit drug transportation and wholesale distribution in the region is unrivaled and has spread from larger cities such as Chicago and Detroit to smaller markets and suburban areas.

• Recent increases in the availability and abuse of illicit drugs in some suburban areas and smaller communities in the Great Lakes Region, particularly in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, have contributed to increases in the number of drug abusers and distributors who commit violent crimes (homicide, kidnapping, and assault) and property crimes (automobile theft, shoplifting, and identity theft).

• Heroin use is increasing among affluent, young Caucasian users in areas of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin, owing in part to a decrease in negative perceptions regarding heroin use. Heroin use also is increasing among some abusers of prescription narcotics such as OxyContin who switch to heroin when they experience difficulty obtaining prescription narcotics.

• Cannabis cultivation is a significant problem in Kentucky, which ranks second after California in the number of seized indoor and outdoor grow sites.

• Asian criminal groups, primarily ethnic Vietnamese criminal groups from Canada, are smuggling high potency Canada-produced marijuana into the Great Lakes Region at an increasing rate.

• Members of local and nationally affiliated African American and Hispanic street gangs such as Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Black Peace Stones, and Latin Kings, who distribute illicit drugs--cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and PCP (phencyclidine)--at various distribution levels in the region have branched out to form additional gangs in cities, including Chicago (IL), Cleveland (OH), and Detroit and Flint (MI).

• Mexican DTOs are the most significant drug money launderers in the Great Lakes Region; they principally transport bulk quantities of cash and monetary instruments overland to Mexico.

Variations From National Trends

• Methamphetamine production levels at small capacity laboratories have decreased in many areas of the Great Lakes Region, paralleling a national trend; however, production has increased overall in Ohio and Michigan during the past 5 years.

• Fentanyl has emerged as a public health threat in some areas of the Great Lakes Region, most notably in Chicago and Detroit, which have reported hundreds of fentanyl-related overdoses and over 100 fentanyl-related deaths since September 2005. A significant number of these overdoses and deaths have been attributed to clandestinely produced fentanyl of an unknown origin, most likely Mexico.

• Retail-level MDMA distribution in the region, which was previously dominated by Caucasian traffickers in loosely organized groups, has expanded to include African American crack dealers. For example, many crack dealers on street corners in Cleveland (OH) now are also selling MDMA along with crack. MDMA was previously sold almost exclusively by Caucasian distributors to teenagers and young adults in middle-class neighborhoods, on college campuses, and at nightclubs, concerts, and raves.

• Prescription monitoring programs in several states in the Great Lakes Region have been successful in detecting trends in pharmaceutical diversion and abuse. For example, doctor-shopping has become more difficult as a result of the implementation of several statewide monitoring programs, including the Michigan Automated Prescription System (MAPS) and the Kentucky All-Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting (KASPER) System.

• Some retail drug distributors in the Great Lakes Region are laundering drug proceeds through fraudulent real estate transactions and mortgage fraud. The Chicago Police Department estimates that gang members in the city laundered $180 million of their drug proceeds in this manner during the last 3 years.

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