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National
Drug Intelligence Center Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis May 2007 ProductionMost of the marijuana available in the HIDTA region is produced in the Mexican states of Guerrero, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca, and Zacatecas. Some marijuana is produced locally, although seizure statistics indicate that overall cannabis cultivation rates in Arizona are trending upward. Law enforcement officials in Arizona participating in the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP) seized 82,781 plants in 2006, a slight decrease from the 113,523 cannabis plants seized in 2005 but a sharp increase from prior years; 26,774 cannabis plants were reported seized during the period of 2001 through 2004. Most local cannabis cultivation takes place outdoors, often on federal public lands. The largest cannabis cultivation plots often are discovered along the Mogollon Rim, an area outside the HIDTA region but just north of Maricopa County. (See Figure 2.)
Most of the methamphetamine available in the Arizona HIDTA region is produced in Jalisco, Sonora, and Sinaloa, Mexico; however, Mexican traffickers are also beginning the methamphetamine production process in Mexico and then transporting the unfinished product into Arizona, where it is further processed. For example, in December 2006 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in conjunction with the DEA Tucson District Office, arrested a Mexican trafficker and seized liquid methamphetamine from inside the gas tank of a private vehicle. The methamphetamine liquid was being smuggled from Mexico to Arizona, where it was going to be separated, mixed with hydrogen chloride (HCl), "bubbled," and then crystallized into ice methamphetamine. This smuggling technique is increasingly used by Mexican traffickers, who take extra precautions to avoid law enforcement interdiction, particularly during production. |
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