Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• The South Texas HIDTA region is a primary entry point along the U.S.-Mexico border used by Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) to smuggle cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine into the United States.
• Mexican DTOs control drug trafficking in and through the South Texas HIDTA region. Their control stems from their marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin production capabilities in Mexico, their sources of supply for other drugs and precursor chemicals, and their extensive cross-border smuggling operations.
• Methamphetamine smuggling through the South Texas HIDTA region has increased, despite a decrease in seizures during the past year. South Texas now rivals California and Arizona as the primary entry point for Mexican methamphetamine smuggled into the United States.
• Several Mexican DTOs are engaged in violent disputes over control of smuggling routes through the region. Most violence has remained within Mexico; some, including violence against law enforcement personnel who patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas, has spilled into South Texas HIDTA counties.
• South Texas, particularly San Antonio, has recently emerged as a key distribution and transshipment point for cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin destined for drug markets throughout the United States.

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HIDTA Overview

The South Texas HIDTA consists of 14 counties along the U.S.-Mexico border and encompasses one of the principal drug smuggling and drug transportation corridors in the United States. South Texas HIDTA counties share a 625-mile border with Mexico, which stretches from Val Verde County to the Gulf of Mexico, representing approximately 50 percent of the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and 31 percent of the entire U.S.-Mexico border. The location of the HIDTA along the U.S.-Mexico border renders the area extremely vulnerable to drug trafficking and homeland security-related threats such as bulk cash smuggling, alien smuggling, border-related violence, gang entry, weapons trafficking and, possibly, terrorist entry. The South Texas HIDTA region is also a significant distribution center and transshipment zone for illicit drugs smuggled into the country from Mexico, destined for drug markets in other regions of the country. The major distribution centers and transshipment points in the South Texas HIDTA region are Brownsville, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo, McAllen, and San Antonio.

Shared geographic, economic, and cultural ties between South Texas and Mexico provide an ideal environment for drug smuggling and other criminal activity in the South Texas HIDTA region. Mexican DTOs exploit the dynamics unique to the Southwest Border area to smuggle illicit drugs into the United States and to launder drug proceeds. The Rio Grande River and vast areas of farmland and ranches along the border are easily breached and exploited by Mexican DTOs that smuggle large quantities of illicit drugs into the United States. Texas border communities, including Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo, Roma, Hidalgo, Rio Grande City, Progresso, and Brownsville, and their Mexican sister cities--Ciudad Acuña, Piedras Negras, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Alemán, Camargo, Reynosa, Nuevo Progresso, and Matamoros, respectively--create large binational metropolitan areas that drug traffickers use to conceal drug trafficking operations. Traffickers also exploit the high volume of legitimate cross-border traffic at the eight primary South Texas ports of entry (POEs) created by the bustling border economy.

The extensive transportation network that facilitates commercial trade and traffic across the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas creates an environment for drug trafficking operations. Traffickers use a combination of land and maritime transportation methods to smuggle illicit drugs into the South Texas HIDTA region. Overland transportation along the region's interstates, U.S. highways, and secondary routes affords drug traffickers various transportation means and routes while simultaneously presenting numerous challenges to the region's law enforcement agencies. Traffickers use private vehicles and commercial trucks and buses to smuggle drugs across the Southwest Border. In addition to handling the high volume of vehicular traffic, the POEs at Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo, and Brownsville also support rail traffic from Mexico. The South Texas HIDTA region is also vulnerable to maritime smuggling from Mexico. The Rio Grande River, Lake Amistad, and Falcon Lake (all located along the U.S.-Mexico border), and the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), Padre Island National Seashore (PINS), shipping channels, and bays (all located along the Gulf Coast) provide additional opportunities for drug traffickers. Mexican traffickers use a variety of fishing boats as well as go-fast boats, barges, rafts, and commercial freighters to smuggle drugs into the South Texas HIDTA region. Drug traffickers typically do not use air transportation methods to smuggle drugs into South Texas; however, the region contains numerous public and private airstrips that could be used by drug traffickers to smuggle illicit drugs in private airplanes.

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