HIDTA Overview

The New England HIDTA region encompasses 13 counties in the six New England states. (See Figure 1.) Nine of the 13 counties are located in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Two primary drug distribution centers are located within the New England HIDTA--the Hartford, Connecticut/Springfield, Massachusetts, area in the western half of the region and the Lawrence/Lowell, Massachusetts, area in the eastern half of the region. Traffickers operating in these distribution centers supply drugs largely to consumer markets throughout the HIDTA region. The Providence, Rhode Island/Fall River, Massachusetts, area also serves as a distribution center, albeit on a much lesser scale than the primary centers; it supplies communities outside the New England HIDTA region along Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Boston, Massachusetts, the largest city in New England, is primarily a consumer market; it is supplied by Lawrence, Lowell, and New York City. Some Boston-based distributors sell drugs outside the city in neighboring towns such as Braintree, Cambridge, Chelsea, Framingham, Lynn, Quincy, and Weymouth, as well as in Maine and New Hampshire.

The New England HIDTA region's geographic location near New York City and the U.S.-Canada border facilitates the smuggling of drugs into the region. New York City is the largest drug market in the eastern United States and the source for most of the South American (SA) heroin, cocaine, and commercial-grade marijuana available in New England. A large percentage of the MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy), marijuana, and prescription drugs available in the region are smuggled into the area across the U.S.-Canada border. More recently, Atlanta, Georgia, has emerged as a principal area from which heroin, cocaine, and marijuana are transported to the region.

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