National Drug Intelligence Center   North Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2008   June 2008

Oklahoma City

Overview

Oklahoma City is a significant regional-level transportation, transshipment, and distribution center for illicit drugs supplied to the North Texas HIDTA region and markets in neighboring states. Mexican DTOs control the transportation of wholesale quantities of most illicit drugs--including marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin--to the area for distribution. Asian DTOs based in Canada are the principal suppliers of MDMA and high-potency marijuana. Mexican DTOs and operatives working on their behalf further transport some of these illicit drugs from Oklahoma City to major metropolitan areas located primarily in neighboring states and the Midwest for distribution. The interstates and other roadways that traverse Oklahoma City and surrounding areas provide ready access to and from the U.S.-Mexico border through Texas and enhance the attractiveness of the Oklahoma City area to drug traffickers as a significant location for the transportation and transshipment of illicit drugs and drug proceeds.

Production

Mexican and local independent traffickers, the principal powder methamphetamine producers in the Oklahoma City area, produce less methamphetamine than they did prior to 2004, when Oklahoma officials first enacted precursor chemical control regulations. Data received from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs indicate that law enforcement officers seized 7 methamphetamine laboratories in Oklahoma County in 2007, a decline from 10 laboratories seized in 2006. Despite the decline in local methamphetamine production, law enforcement officers in Oklahoma City are reportedly seizing an increasing number of abandoned methamphetamine laboratories and their remnants.

Illicit drug production in the Oklahoma City area is generally limited to crack cocaine conversion and small-scale indoor cannabis cultivation. African American criminals are the primary producers of crack cocaine in Oklahoma City, typically converting powder cocaine to crack cocaine in the city's low-income neighborhoods as needed for distribution.

Transportation

Mexican DTOs employ cell members in their transportation networks to smuggle most of the illicit drugs available in Oklahoma City from Mexico through the Laredo and El Paso/Juárez plazas. They typically smuggle drugs overland in private and commercial vehicles equipped with concealed compartments. Law enforcement reporting suggests that an increasing number of smugglers transport illicit drugs in late-model sport-utility vehicles (SUVs). Some Mexican transporters are using couriers on commercial or Mexican-owned bus lines to smuggle illicit drugs, often concealing the drugs in the soles of their footwear or in pieces of luggage. For example, in May 2007 Oklahoma City police officers arrested a man at a downtown bus station when he attempted to board a bus with approximately $140,000 worth of Mexican black tar heroin in his shoes. The man had cut out the bottoms of his shoes and had inserted the heroin in the shape of an insole into his shoe. In another instance in the last quarter of 2007, law enforcement officers in Oklahoma City seized approximately 2 kilograms of white heroin from the suitcase of a passenger on a bus en route to New York City from El Paso, Texas.

When drug shipments reach their intended destinations in the Oklahoma City area, traffickers frequently store the drugs in stash houses located in residential neighborhoods where their family members or friends reside. However, some traffickers reportedly have purchased 10 to 15 homes in a particular neighborhood for stash purposes only. They often repackage their drug shipments at these locations for further transport and distribution throughout the United States, including Chicago. They use these same stash house locations to store and consolidate bulk quantities of cash and monetary instruments before transporting the illicit funds to Mexico. Oklahoma City Police Department officers report that since spring 2007, some stash house operators have become increasingly security conscious, monitoring their stash houses by purchasing scanners to intercept images from nonencrypted pole cameras.

Asian and other trafficking organizations based in Canada are the primary suppliers of MDMA and high-potency marijuana in the area. They reportedly exchange some of their MDMA supply in the Oklahoma City area for cocaine, which they then smuggle into Canada.

Law enforcement officers in Oklahoma seized decreasing quantities of illicit drugs and drug proceeds in 2007 on state toll roads, most likely the result of a shift in drug smuggling routes to and through the area. In the last quarter of 2007, Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers reported that as a result of Oklahoma's vigorous highway interdiction operations, drug traffickers were using north-south interstates and state highways in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to connect with east-west Interstates 70, 80, 90 and, more recently, 20 when transporting illicit drugs from and bulk cash to Mexico, completely bypassing Oklahoma. For example, highway patrol officers at the intersection of I-44 and U.S. Highway 69 seized 26 pounds of cocaine from a man traveling from El Paso through Oklahoma on US 69 with his wife and two children. By using US 69, the driver had intentionally bypassed all but the final toll booth and the highway enforcement patrols at the toll plazas on the Will Rogers Turnpike (I-44), east of Tulsa. (See Table 4 In Dallas section for a list of drug seizures by county.)

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Distribution

Mexican DTOs and criminal groups provide a significant source of supply for the wholesale distribution of illicit drugs in Oklahoma City. They usually obtain their drug supplies, most often cocaine and Mexican ice methamphetamine, from relatives living in Matamoros, Chihuahua, or Sonora, Mexico. Traffickers operating in western Oklahoma generally acquire their illicit drugs from Chihuahua-based suppliers, while traffickers in eastern and southern Oklahoma most often obtain their drug supplies from Matamoros-based suppliers.

African American and Hispanic street gangs are the principal retail-level distributors of illicit drugs in Oklahoma City. In September 2007 ICE agents in Oklahoma City, in coordination with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, arrested 65 violent gang members from eight local street gangs during a 7-day Operation Community Shield action. The gangs included Gran Barrio Central, Barrio Gran Mexicanos, Juarito Sureño 14, LA 36, Los Centrales, Murdertown, South Side Locos, and Sureño 13. Some members of these gangs were charged with various drug-related crimes as well as first-degree rape, assault (including assaulting police officers), and illegal possession of a firearm. Members of African American and Hispanic street gangs, particularly South Side Locos and Juaritos, are working with Mexican DTOs to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine, and other drugs in Oklahoma City. Currently some street gang members who had previously distributed only cocaine are also distributing methamphetamine.

Drug-Related Crime

Law enforcement and anecdotal reporting suggests that a significant amount of violent crime in Oklahoma City is directly linked to the trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs and that the level of violence in the city is increasing. The criminal activities of traffickers extend beyond the sale of drugs to include receipt of stolen property, use of counterfeit currency/securities, and other criminal acts. Methamphetamine abusers commit similar crimes to obtain money to support their drug addictions. Similarly, drug users may try to finance their addictions by stealing property, committing identity theft, credit card fraud, and other criminal activities. To combat this threat the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Gang Task Force was created in 2006 to combat drug trafficking and its underlying related criminal activity. The members of this task force are the U.S. Attorneys Office, the Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office, the FBI, DEA, ATF, and Oklahoma City Police Department. This Task Force, with the financial resources provided through the Safe Streets program--an FBI violent crime initiative--provides participating local law enforcement agencies, such as the Oklahoma City Police Department, with manpower and financial support to pursue violent gangs through coordinated investigations that are intended to remove gang members from the streets and prosecute them for their criminal activities. Through this coordinated effort, officers attempt to turn violent gang members into cooperating defendants who can provide information relative to unsolved murders, drive-by shootings, and other violent crimes. The work of this Task Force has resulted in hundreds of arrests and prosecutions of street gang members at the state and federal level. Significant other gang-related investigations are ongoing. As a result of the Task Force and the Safe Streets program, the number of drive-by shootings in Oklahoma City has declined significantly since 2005. (See Table 7.)

Table 7. Drive-By Shootings in Oklahoma City, 2003-2007

Source: Oklahoma City Police Department.

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Abuse

The number of drug-related treatment admissions in Oklahoma County decreased in all major drug categories, with the exception of heroin and marijuana, from 2005 to 2007. The number of cocaine-related treatment admissions decreased by 28 percent, and the number of amphetamine-related admissions (which include methamphetamine admissions) decreased by 18 percent during this 3-year period. Conversely, the number of heroin-related treatment admissions increased by 66 percent overall from 2005 to 2007, and the number of marijuana-related admissions remained fairly stable, increasing by 2 percent overall during the same time period. (See Table 8.)

Table 8. Adult Drug-Related Treatment Admissions in Oklahoma Counties in the North Texas HIDTA, by Drug, 2005-2007

Source: Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

The number of drug-related deaths in Oklahoma County increased each year from 2005 through 2007. In 2007 Oklahoma County accounted for 22 percent of all drug-related deaths that occurred in Oklahoma and 38 percent of all drug-related deaths that occurred in the six Oklahoma counties that are part of the North Texas HIDTA region. (See Table 9 and Table 10.) Many of the drug-related deaths in Oklahoma County involved the accidental or unintentional overdose of pharmaceutical drugs. (See Table 11.)

Table 9. Drug-Related Deaths in Oklahoma Counties in the North Texas HIDTA, 2005-2007

Source: Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Table 10. Drug-Related Deaths in Oklahoma, 2001-2007

Source: Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
* Medical Examiner statistics for 2007 are based on reports received, not those still pending. Therefore, the number of drug-related overdose deaths in 2007 may be higher than the total noted.

Table 11. Illicit Drug- and Pharmaceutical-Related Deaths in Oklahoma Counties in the North Texas HIDTA, 2001-2007

Source: Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Mexican ice methamphetamine has replaced locally produced powder methamphetamine as the drug of choice in Oklahoma City. African American crack cocaine abusers--one of the newest methamphetamine abuser populations in the city--have started to switch to ice methamphetamine abuse because the drug is comparable in price to crack but offers a more potent and longer-lasting high.

Pharmaceutical drugs--particularly hydrocodone, oxycodone (specifically OxyContin), and methadone products--are diverted and abused by an increasing number of users in Oklahoma City. These drugs are often prescribed by physicians at pain management clinics, which are increasing in number throughout the state. Some physicians at these clinics are reportedly prescribing methadone as an alternative to OxyContin because of the public's negative perception of OxyContin based on the potential risk of addiction or death associated with its use. As a result, more drug traffickers than in the past are now diverting and abusing methadone in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma has also experienced a growth in the number of methadone treatment programs opened throughout the state in recent years. With the increase in the number of these programs, which treat patients for opiate-related addiction, the likelihood of abuse and diversion of methadone from these clinics increases. The ready availability of diverted methadone has resulted in a number of deaths in the city. According to Medical Examiner officials in Oklahoma City, methadone was the primary drug mentioned in 300 drug-related deaths throughout Oklahoma from 2004 through 2006.

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Illicit Finance

Similar to money laundering trends in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Mexican DTOs in Oklahoma City typically consolidate bulk quantities of cash and monetary instruments generated from the distribution of illicit drugs in Oklahoma City and many other drug markets prior to smuggling the proceeds in bulk overland into Mexico for eventual laundering. They often transport cash and monetary instruments in the same vehicles used to smuggle illicit drugs to Oklahoma City.

Drug traffickers in Oklahoma City also use various other means to transfer tens of millions of dollars in illicit drug proceeds to suppliers in Mexico. An increasing number of traffickers transfer proceeds from Oklahoma City to Mexico through wire transfers. Law enforcement officers report that a substantial (70%) decline in the number of bulk cash seizures in the city from 2006 to 2007 correlates with a dramatic increase in the number of electronic wire transfers from Oklahoma City to Mexico. Much of the decline in the amount of bulk cash and monetary instruments seized can be attributed to the same successful highway drug interdiction efforts mentioned previously. These efforts, which often involve Interstates 35 and 40, have forced some traffickers to alter their transportation routes, avoiding turnpikes in favor of less heavily monitored state routes. Other traffickers are smuggling drug proceeds through and from the city during rush hour to blend in with legitimate travelers, thereby making law enforcement detection more difficult.

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