National Drug Intelligence Center   Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009   March 2009

Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• Some Midwest HIDTA states--particularly Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska--are experiencing a resurgence of local methamphetamine production. Local law enforcement agencies throughout the HIDTA region report that methamphetamine producers are exploiting the region's lack of centralized reporting on pseudoephedrine purchases by smurfing--buying pseudoephedrine at or below state thresholds from multiple pharmacies and stores until they obtain enough to produce methamphetamine.
   
• Many HIDTA law enforcement agencies report an increase in the abuse of controlled prescription drugs (CPDs) within the region. Officials with the Overland Park, Kansas, Police Department now regard the abuse of CPDs as the greatest threat in that jurisdiction as a result of a rash of CPD overdoses in 2008.
   
• Law enforcement officials in Springfield, Missouri; Minot, North Dakota; and Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Watertown, and Brookings County, South Dakota, report an increase in MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy) availability and abuse in 2008.

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HIDTA Overview

The Midwest HIDTA region consists of 74 counties in a seven-state area that stretches from North Dakota to Missouri1 (see Figure 1). The Midwest HIDTA counties are located in the central United States between western and eastern drug markets; they are connected by an extensive transportation infrastructure that makes the HIDTA a significant transshipment area for drug traffickers. Most major interstate highways in the northern United States pass through and intersect in the Midwest HIDTA region, facilitating the transportation of illicit drugs from the U.S.-Mexico (Southwest) border and the U.S.-Canada (Northern) border to drug markets throughout the United States. The region's primary markets (Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, as well as Omaha, Nebraska) and secondary markets (Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa; Fargo/Grand Forks, North Dakota; Sioux City, Iowa/Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Springfield, Missouri; and Wichita, Kansas) serve as distribution centers for major U.S. drug markets as well as smaller rural counties in the HIDTA region.2 The widespread distribution and abuse of crack cocaine and ice methamphetamine and associated violence are the primary drug threats in these market areas.

The Midwest HIDTA region is extremely vulnerable to drug trafficking from the Southwest Border because of its connectivity to that region; most illicit drugs used in and transported through the HIDTA enter the United States through the Southwest Border. Mexican traffickers transport drugs into the Midwest HIDTA region from Mexico through distribution hubs in California (Los Angeles) and the Southwest Border area (El Paso and Dallas, Texas, and Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona). Interstate highways are the primary trafficking routes; however, virtually all U.S. highways, state highways, and local roads are used by drug traffickers to transport illicit drugs. Mexican traffickers transport substantial quantities of ice methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin into and through the HIDTA region for local consumption and en route to national-level markets in the Midwest and Northeast, including Chicago and New York.

The Midwest HIDTA region also is vulnerable to drug trafficking from the Northern Border, since North Dakota shares a 300-mile-long border and 18 official land ports of entry (POEs) with Canada. (See Figure 2.) The area between Northern Border POEs is isolated, rural, and rife with opportunities for drug traffickers and criminal groups to smuggle Canadian marijuana, MDMA, and pseudoephedrine and ephedrine (methamphetamine precursor chemicals) into the HIDTA without detection by law enforcement personnel.3

Figure 2. Midwest HIDTA Region Transportation Infrastructure

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Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and criminal groups dominate the transportation and wholesale distribution of ice methamphetamine, cocaine, and Mexican marijuana in the area. An increasing illegal and legal Mexican and Central American population in suburban and rural towns has fueled the expansion and dominance of Mexican polydrug trafficking groups that exploit the infrastructure of these growing communities to mask their activities from law enforcement officials and to expand their distribution networks. African American and Hispanic street gangs control most retail drug distribution in the Midwest HIDTA metropolitan areas and contribute significantly to violent crime in those areas. Local independent dealers are the principal retail distributors in the rural areas of the HIDTA region.

Footnotes

1. The seven states are Illinois (Rock Island County), Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
2. Primary markets serve as significant transshipment and distribution centers for illicit drugs supplied to markets in multiple regions of the country. Secondary markets supply illicit drugs to smaller markets within a state or neighboring states.
3. Approximately 90 percent of Canada's population is concentrated within 99 miles of the U.S.-Canada border. The 2007 population of the Winnipeg metropolitan area (Manitoba Province's largest city) was 712,700; by contrast, the 2006 population of the entire state of North Dakota was estimated at 636,000.

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