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National Drug Intelligence Center |
The NE HIDTA region comprises 13 counties in 6 states; approximately 8.7 million individuals reside in the region. (See Figure 1 in Preface.) Nine of the HIDTA counties are located in Massachusetts and Connecticut, with the remaining four located in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Two primary drug distribution centers are located within the NE HIDTA region--the Hartford, Connecticut/Springfield, Massachusetts, area in the west and the Lowell/Lawrence, Massachusetts, area in the east. Drug traffickers operating in these distribution centers supply most consumer markets in the HIDTA region. The Providence, Rhode Island/Fall River, Massachusetts, area is a secondary distribution center that supplies communities in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, an area that is located outside the NE HIDTA region. Boston, Massachusetts, New England's largest city, is predominantly a consumer market; it is supplied primarily by distributors operating from Lawrence, Lowell, and the New York City metropolitan area. Some Boston-based distributors sell drugs in communities located in the surrounding metropolitan area, including Braintree, Cambridge, Chelsea, Framingham, Lynn, Quincy, and Weymouth (all in Massachusetts) as well as in Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The approximate wholesale value of drugs seized under NE HIDTA initiatives in 2008 totaled $44.6 million. (See Table 1 in Drug Threat Overview.)
An extensive air, land, and sea transportation infrastructure links the NE HIDTA region directly to numerous domestic and foreign markets that are located in drug source and/or transit zones. Numerous land ports of entry (POEs) along the U.S.-Canada border provide drug traffickers with various avenues by which to transport drug shipments from foreign locations to the NE HIDTA region. Six major interstate highways, three intraregional interstates, and a vast network of secondary and tertiary roadways link New England to major population centers throughout the country. Additionally, Interstates 89, 90, 91, 93, and 95 offer direct routes through New England to locations at or near the U.S.-Canada border. (See Figure 2 in Transportation section.) International airports and maritime ports further facilitate illicit drug smuggling into and through the area. Boston Logan International Airport is the seventeenth-busiest airport in the United States. Additional major airports are located in Hartford; Providence; Burlington, Vermont; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Portland and Bangor, Maine. Numerous small public and private airports also operate in the New England region. Major commercial seaports are located in Bridgeport, Groton, New London, and New Haven, Connecticut; Boston and Fall River, Massachusetts; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and Eastport, Portland, Sandy Point, and Searsport, Maine. Numerous small seaports that accommodate commercial cargo and fishing vessels as well as commercial and private recreational vessels are also located on the New England coast.
The NE HIDTA region's proximity to New York City and the eastern provinces of Canada facilitates drug smuggling to the region. New York City, the largest drug market in the eastern United States, is the source for most of the SA heroin, cocaine, and commercial-grade marijuana available in New England; traffickers in New York City are also supplying khat to members of Somali communities in Maine and Massachusetts. Moreover, traffickers are increasingly smuggling cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and small quantities of methamphetamine directly from southwestern states to the region, particularly Massachusetts. Additionally, Atlanta, Georgia, has become a source city for cocaine, heroin, and marijuana transported to the region, and Florida has emerged as a source for cocaine, diverted CPDs, and MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy).
Canada-based traffickers, who operate primarily from Montreal and Toronto, smuggle significant quantities of marijuana, MDMA, and CPDs to the region; they are also smuggling increasing quantities of synthetic drug tablets/capsules that contain multiple substances in various combinations. Moreover, traffickers use the NE HIDTA region as a transit zone for drug shipments from Canada destined for other regions of the United States and for drug shipments (primarily cocaine), drug proceeds, and weapons from the United States destined for Canada.
Drug-related violence is increasing throughout much of the HIDTA region, largely because of the proliferation of street gangs, which operate in every New England state. Street gangs are particularly active in major and midsize cities, where they often engage in violent intergang struggles over drug distribution territories. Furthermore, law enforcement officials report that the average age of the suspects and victims in gang-related street crime and violence is declining in some parts of the NE HIDTA region.
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