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National Drug Intelligence Center
Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis
June 2007
Strategic Drug Threat
Developments
- Methamphetamine distribution and abuse remain at high levels in the Rocky
Mountain HIDTA region despite dramatic declines in local production of powder
methamphetamine. Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are providing
the market with a continuous and abundant supply of low-cost, high-purity
ice methamphetamine.
- Methamphetamine-related crime, including property crime (check fraud,
currency counterfeiting, identity theft, and mail theft) and violent crime
(such as assaults), has increased in the region. This increase has been linked
by law enforcement officials to the rising availability and abuse of Mexican
ice methamphetamine.
- Cocaine availability and abuse are increasing in major cities and in some
rural areas of the HIDTA region, such as southeastern Colorado and central
and southeastern Montana. A growing number of cocaine abusers reportedly believe
that they can use the drug occasionally without becoming addicted and consider
cocaine to be a recreational drug when compared with methamphetamine.
- Rising demand for high-potency marijuana has resulted in increased production
of the drug in the HIDTA region. Law enforcement agencies in Denver and Fort
Collins, Colorado, and other areas of the region report a significant rise
in the number of indoor cannabis grows seized during the past year.
- Heroin abuse is increasing in many areas as a growing number of young,
former prescription narcotics abusers transition to heroin use.
- "Cheese," a low-cost drug combination containing Mexican black tar heroin
and the crushed tablets of common over-the-counter (OTC) medications, such
as Tylenol PM or generic cold medications containing the antihistamine diphenhydramine,
is emerging in Boulder County, Colorado. Cheese is popular among 10- to 16-year-old
Hispanic juveniles, both males and females.
- MDMA availability and abuse have made a substantial resurgence in Denver;
Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah. Asian criminal groups,
Asian gangs, and Caucasian distributors are routinely supplying wholesale
quantities of MDMA that they obtain in Canada.
Drug Trafficking Organizations,
Criminal Groups, and Gangs
Drug trafficking organizations are complex organizations with
highly defined command-and-control structures that produce, transport,
and/or distribute large quantities of one or more illicit drugs.
Criminal groups operating in the United States are numerous
and range from small to moderately sized, loosely knit groups that distribute
one or more drugs at the retail and midlevels.
Gangs are defined by the National Alliance of Gang Investigators'
Associations as groups or associations of three or more persons with a
common identifying sign, symbol, or name, the members of which individually
or collectively engage in criminal activity that creates an atmosphere
of fear and intimidation.
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The Rocky Mountain HIDTA region encompasses 34 designated counties in Colorado,
Montana, Utah, and Wyoming; the area contains large metropolitan areas as well
as expansive, sparsely populated areas, including public and tribal lands. (See
Figure 1.) The HIDTA region is located between
major drug source areas in Mexico and Canada and is linked by interstate highways
to major domestic drug markets across the United States. Denver, Colorado Springs,
and Salt Lake City,1
the three largest metropolitan areas in the Drug Trafficking Organizations,
Criminal Groups, and Gangs region, are significant drug markets and serve as
distribution centers for other drug markets in the HIDTA region as well as transshipment
centers for illicit drugs supplied to markets in the Midwest and the eastern
United States.
Rural areas in the HIDTA region, including 34 national forests, provide traffickers
with an opportunity to avoid detection as they engage in illicit activities,
including drug smuggling, cannabis cultivation and, to a lesser extent, powder
methamphetamine production. Drug smuggling from Canada through remote areas
of the HIDTA region is a particular concern for law enforcement agencies. The
585-mile U.S.-Canada border in Montana has 15 official ports of entry (POEs)
as well as hundreds of easily accessible, unofficial crossings that are often
used by traffickers to transport drugs from Canada into the region in private
and commercial vehicles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), snowmobiles, and private
aircraft, as well as on foot. For example, the Kootenai National Forest, located
on the U.S.-Canada border in northwestern Montana and northeastern Idaho--commonly
referred to as "The Yaak"--is often used by drug smugglers because of the many
off-road routes and packing trails that cross the border.
End Note
1. er and Colorado
Springs, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah, are the major drug market areas
in the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) region. The
most significant drug issues and key developments regarding each of these markets
and other areas of the HIDTA are discussed concurrently throughout this report.
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