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Traffickers appear to have established stronger alliances for drug trafficking purposes. Mexican DTOs are increasingly working directly with Hispanic and African American prison and street gangs in the North Texas HIDTA region, and it is very likely that they will enhance these relationships in the near term. These enhanced relationships most likely will contribute to significant increases in the flow of illicit drugs to and through the North Texas HIDTA region.
It is likely that the availability of methamphetamine in the North Texas HIDTA region will diminish over the next year. A decrease in the amount of ice and powder methamphetamine seized in the HIDTA region and many other drug markets throughout the United States as of the date of this report can be attributed to precursor chemical control regulations and counterdrug operations in Mexico and the United States. However, a planned "zero tolerance" policy by Mexican authorities banning the use of any pseudoephedrine products in that country beginning in January 2009 very likely will cause shortages in methamphetamine. Some producers will alter their chemical purchases and techniques to produce methamphetamine, but it is unlikely that production operations will reach previous levels.
The increasing development of relationships between Mexican cartels, their enforcers, and high-level members of gangs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area could contribute to increasing levels of violent crime in the area in the near term. Drug traffickers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area very likely will have to take extra security precautions--possibly including violent confrontations with competing traffickers as well as law enforcement officers--to ensure the safe transport and secure stash house storage of their illicit drug shipments.
The recent increase in the number of firearm thefts from gun shops in the Fort Worth area may signify an interest on the part of Mexican cartels or those working on their behalf in obtaining weapons for use in their drug trafficking and other illicit activities from North Texas HIDTA locations. Weapons smuggling from the United States into Mexico and the crimes committed by cartels using those weapons already pose a serious problem in Mexico, and any increase in gun-shop thefts and smuggling from the North Texas HIDTA region could necessitate more vigilance on the part of U.S. military and law enforcement officers in the near term.
While money laundering through house-flipping poses significant problems to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the current economic decline in the real estate market has diminished some of the threat. However, if the housing market were to become reinvigorated and real estate sales were to increase, it is likely that members of criminal groups and other drug money launderers in Dallas/Fort Worth would again rely heavily on this money laundering technique.
In the near term Mexican DTOs will most likely continue to control the transportation of most illicit drugs to Oklahoma for distribution both in the state and to neighboring states in the region. These Mexican DTOs will quite likely continue to utilize Oklahoma's Hispanic street gangs as a retail distribution network for drugs being sold within the state.
Because of the continued success of highway interdiction programs in Oklahoma, drug traffickers will very likely endeavor to avoid detection by attempting to develop more sophisticated concealment methods and utilize highways that are not as heavily patrolled to transport both drugs and drug proceeds through the state. To avoid the possibility of interdiction entirely, these traffickers are also likely to increase their use of wire transfers to repatriate funds to Mexico.
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