Strategic Drug Threat Developments

National Drug Intelligence Center
Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis
June 2007

Powder methamphetamine production in the Northwest HIDTA has been decreasing over the past 3 years, largely because of the regulation of precursor chemical sales and concerted law enforcement efforts. Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are capitalizing on declining local powder methamphetamine production by supplying drug markets in the region with increasing quantities of low-cost, high-purity ice methamphetamine produced in Mexico.
Ice methamphetamine¹ has replaced marijuana as the most prevalent drug for treatment admissions in the Northwest HIDTA region.
Seizures of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy) have increased along the U.S.-Canada border; polydrug criminal groups are using Washington as an entry point into the United States to supply an increased demand for the drug in markets throughout the country.
Canada-based Vietnamese criminal groups are relocating some of their cannabis cultivation operations from Canada to Washington State to reduce transportation costs and minimize the risk of interdiction by law enforcement while smuggling marijuana across the U.S.-Canada border.

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.

End Note

1. For the purposes of this report, ice methamphetamine refers to methamphetamine that has been crystallized from powder methamphetamine.

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