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The PC HIDTA region's expansive transportation infrastructure is often exploited by DTOs to transport drugs into and throughout the region. Most illicit drugs available in the HIDTA region are transported from New York City in private vehicles along I-95; traffickers also use this route to transport illicit drugs through the region to markets in eastern Pennsylvania (Allentown, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Reading, and York) as well as Delaware, southern New Jersey, and the eastern shore of Maryland. Traffickers also transport illicit drugs into the region along I-95 from Miami and Atlanta. According to law enforcement reporting, Atlanta is increasingly being used as a major distribution center for cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine sold in the PC HIDTA. For example, Mexican DTOs are increasingly transporting drugs in tractor-trailers from Atlanta to the PC HIDTA region. Additionally, Philadelphia-based African American street gang members are increasingly traveling to Atlanta to pick up drugs for distribution in the region. Traffickers also are increasing their use of parcel delivery services to smuggle drugs from Atlanta to Philadelphia.
Interstates 76, 276, and 476 also are significant drug transportation routes to and from the HIDTA region. Traffickers typically use these routes when transporting illicit drugs by vehicle to the region from the West Coast, Southwest Border states, and Canada. Law enforcement reporting suggests that, in addition to interstate highways, traffickers are increasingly using indirect routes such as state routes and secondary roads to transport drugs to the area. In doing so, traffickers generally use readily available GPS (geographic positioning system) technology to navigate indirect routes.
Traffickers also transport drugs into and throughout the HIDTA region using rail, air, and maritime conveyances. They exploit Philadelphia's extensive intercity and regional passenger rail systems, which provide numerous departures and arrivals from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station to Baltimore, Maryland; New York City; and Washington, D.C. Newark- and Trenton-based street gangs in New Jersey routinely use commuter rail services to transport cocaine, currency, and gang members to Camden. Drug traffickers sometimes use the Philadelphia International Airport to smuggle drugs into the HIDTA region. The airport is attractive to traffickers because of its direct connection to many foreign and domestic locations, its high volume of travelers and cargo, and its proximity to major highways and interstates, including I-95. Some traffickers use numerous couriers on flights with several connections in a relay style, in which one courier hands off the package to another at a midway stop. Additionally, some traffickers have reportedly employed handicapped individuals, or persons posing as handicapped, to transport drugs aboard commercial flights in the belief that they may receive less scrutiny during security screening. Traffickers also use the Port of Philadelphia--which consists of the waterfront areas of Camden; Philadelphia; and Wilmington, Delaware--to smuggle drugs into the HIDTA region. Traffickers reportedly exploit maritime vessels that arrive in the port from numerous foreign countries, including high-risk drug source and transit countries such as Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Venezuela. In addition, cruise ship passengers, crew members, and stevedores have reportedly smuggled illicit drugs into the PC HIDTA region aboard cruise ships traveling between Philadelphia and various Caribbean island nations, many of which are drug transit countries.
Traffickers employ U.S. mail and package delivery services to ship illicit drugs into the region. Law enforcement officials in the PC HIDTA region report that traffickers are increasing their use of parcel delivery services to smuggle drugs from Atlanta to Philadelphia. Reporting also indicates an increase in the number of parcels containing cocaine arriving in the region from the Caribbean. This may be an indication that traffickers are attempting to create alternate cocaine supply routes because of disruptions to the traditional routes by law enforcement. Many drug traffickers prefer to use package delivery services because they can monitor the shipments on the Internet. According to law enforcement officials, when a shipment is delayed, some traffickers assume that the package has been intercepted by law enforcement and refuse delivery out of fear of arrest.
Traffickers use a variety of concealment methods when transporting drugs to avoid detection and increase the likelihood of successful delivery. Drugs such as cocaine, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine, and diverted pharmaceuticals that are transported overland in private and commercial vehicles are often concealed by traffickers in oil pans, manifolds, brake drums, drive shafts, radiators, and gas tanks. Additionally, many traffickers construct false compartments in vehicles, some of which are operated electronically. Traffickers also hide drugs in various items such as furniture, stuffed animals, blankets, women's undergarments, and baby diapers or commingle them among shipments of legitimate goods. Some traffickers transport heroin mixed with other substances, such as shampoo and soap, capitalizing on the unique chemical characteristics of the drug that enable it to be stored in solution--this requires the recipient to have some ability in chemistry to extract the drug. Traffickers who use package delivery services as a mode of transportation sometimes conceal illicit drugs in laptop computers, book bindings, ceramic statues, candles, candy bars, and other items. They also ship drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine in flat, commercial "letter envelopes" in an attempt to elude law enforcement or package handlers who are adept at discovering contraband shipped in larger boxes.
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Interdiction initiatives by the Philadelphia Police Department and the Pennsylvania State Police have resulted in seizures of parcels containing concealed illicit drugs at a Philadelphia shipping facility, including the following:
Source: "The Pulse," Newsletter of the PC HIDTA, Fall 2007. |
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