National Drug Intelligence Center   Atlanta High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009   April 2009

Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• The Atlanta HIDTA region is a principal drug distribution center for Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) that supply illicit drugs to drug markets in the eastern United States. These DTOs also use the region as a bulk cash consolidation center, storing millions of dollars in suburban Atlanta stash houses before transporting the cash to the Southwest Border area and Mexico.
   
• The influence exerted by Mexican DTOs on the Atlanta HIDTA region is unmatched by any other trafficking organization or group. Mexican DTOs with ties to the Southwest Border area and Mexico supply the vast majority of powder cocaine, ice methamphetamine, commercial-grade marijuana, and heroin available in the Atlanta HIDTA region.
   
• In 2008, violent acts committed by Mexican DTOs against other Mexican traffickers increased in the Atlanta area; this violence is often initiated to collect money owed from drug debts and to intimidate other drug traffickers in the region.
   
• Shortages in wholesale quantities of powder cocaine first noted in 2007 continued to be reported by several law enforcement officers in the Atlanta HIDTA region in 2008; law enforcement officers report that the price for cocaine remains high.
   
• Eradication data suggest that indoor cannabis cultivation decreased significantly in Georgia, including Georgia counties in the Atlanta HIDTA region. The total number of indoor cannabis plants eradicated in Georgia decreased 70 percent from 2007 through 2008.

To Top     To Contents

HIDTA Overview

The Atlanta HIDTA region comprises Barrow, Bartow, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett and Henry Counties, which compose a large portion of the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area, and Durham, Johnston, Wake, Wayne, and Wilson Counties, which encompass most of the Raleigh metropolitan area in North Carolina. (See Figure 1.) Moreover, many HIDTA initiatives and investigations extend into counties within the Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) that are adjacent to the HIDTA region.1 (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. Atlanta Metropolitan Area Transportation Infrastructure

d-link

The Atlanta area is the leading drug distribution and bulk cash consolidation center for Mexican DTOs that supply illicit drugs, particularly powder cocaine, to drug markets in the eastern United States and transport illicit drug proceeds from those markets to the Southwest Border area and Mexico.2 The drug flow from the Atlanta HIDTA region has positioned it as a national-level drug distribution center for many eastern U.S. drug markets. Mexican DTOs distribute illicit drugs from the Atlanta HIDTA region to cities throughout the eastern United States, including Baltimore, Maryland; Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio; Columbia, South Carolina; Gainesville, Jacksonville, Miami, and Tampa, Florida; Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Roanoke, Virginia. Moreover, these DTOs distribute ice methamphetamine from Atlanta to southeastern drug markets. The illicit drugs distributed from the Atlanta HIDTA region are generally smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by Mexican traffickers and then through California and Texas en route to the HIDTA region. Moreover, Mexican DTOs use the Atlanta area as a bulk cash consolidation center, storing millions of dollars in suburban Atlanta stash houses before transporting the cash to the Southwest Border area and Mexico.

The Atlanta HIDTA region has a highly accessible transportation system, including major roadways that link it to the Southwest Border and major eastern U.S. drug markets. (See Figure 2 and Figure 3.) Mexican DTOs exploit the Atlanta HIDTA region's geographic location between these areas to transport illicit drugs to Atlanta and then on to eastern drug markets; these DTOs also transport illicit drugs directly to distribution points in North Carolina for further distribution to eastern drug markets. Mexican DTOs frequently transport illicit drugs into North Carolina counties of the Atlanta HIDTA region from Atlanta using Interstate 85 or from California using I-40.

Figure 3. North Carolina Counties in the Atlanta HIDTA Region Transportation Infrastructure

d-link

Footnotes

1. The Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes the following 28 counties: Barrow, Bartow, Butts, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Haralson, Heard, Henry, Jasper, Lamar, Meriwether, Newton, Paulding, Pickens, Pike, Rockdale, Spalding, and Walton.
2. According to the Rand McNally Road Atlas and Travel Guide 2008, the eastern United States consists of Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

End of page.