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Strategic Drug Threat Developments
- Local powder methamphetamine production, which has been declining for the
past several years, further decreased over the past year, largely the result
of stricter regulations on the sale of precursor and essential chemicals used
in methamphetamine production, successful law enforcement efforts, and public
awareness campaigns on the adverse health effects of methamphetamine abuse that
focus on demand. Nonetheless, limited local methamphetamine production still
occurs in the region, primarily in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties, jeopardizing
the safety of citizens, adversely affecting the environment, and straining law
enforcement resources in the region.
- Mexican ice methamphetamine poses the most significant drug threat to the
Northwest HIDTA region. Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and criminal
groups are the dominant transporters and wholesale distributors of the drug
in the HIDTA region.1
- Cocaine availability and abuse are increasing in the HIDTA region. Part
of this increase is attributed to fluctuations in availability and the misconception
that cocaine is a safer alternative to methamphetamine.
- Canada-based Vietnamese criminal groups are increasingly establishing cannabis
cultivation operations in Washington to reduce costs associated with the transportation
of high-potency marijuana from Canada and to minimize the risk of law enforcement
interdiction.
The Northwest HIDTA was established in 1997 to counter the threat posed by the
high volume of drugs transported throughout the area and smuggled across the U.S.-Canada
border. The region encompasses 14 counties in Washington--Benton, Clark, Cowlitz,
Franklin, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, Spokane, Thurston, Whatcom,
and Yakima. The proximity of the HIDTA region to Canada and the direct access to
drug sources in Mexico through a vast transportation infrastructure--numerous freeways,
highways, airports, waterways, and railways--contribute to the threat of cross-border
smuggling. For instance, Interstate 5, a major north-south corridor, provides traffickers
direct access to the area from the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry (POEs)
at the U.S.-Mexico border and the Blaine POE located in Washington at the U.S.-Canada
border.
End Note
1.
the purposes of this report, ice methamphetamine
refers to methamphetamine that has been crystallized from powder methamphetamine.
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