National Drug Intelligence Center   Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009   March 2009   UNCLASSIFIED

Drug Threat Overview

The Rocky Mountain HIDTA region is a significant distribution and transshipment center for illicit drugs supplied by Mexican DTOs. They exploit the region's centralized location, proximity to Mexican sources of supply, and extensive transportation infrastructure to distribute wholesale quantities of ice methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin. Mexican DTOs and criminal groups use key distribution centers in Colorado, including Denver and Colorado Springs, as well as in Salt Lake City, to supply illicit drugs to smaller cities throughout the region, such as Fort Collins, Pueblo, and Greeley, Colorado; Billings, Montana; and Cheyenne, Wyoming, and to transship drugs to markets in the Midwest and eastern United States. Mexican DTOs and criminal groups continue to refine their operations as well as expand into the region's more remote areas to further their trafficking and distribution capabilities.

Widespread ice methamphetamine distribution and abuse pose the greatest overall drug threat to the Rocky Mountain HIDTA region, straining law enforcement, public health, and social services resources, particularly in rural areas. Of the 95 state and local law enforcement agencies in the region that responded to the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) National Drug Threat Survey (NDTS)2 2009, 75 identify methamphetamine as the greatest drug threat to their jurisdictions. These respondents also indicate that methamphetamine is the drug that contributes most to violent crime and property crime in their jurisdictions. (See Table 1.) Most of the ice methamphetamine and, to a lesser extent, powder methamphetamine available in the area is produced by Mexican DTOs in Mexico and California.

Table 1. Law Enforcement Responses to the National Drug Threat Survey 2009 Pertaining to Methamphetamine, Rocky Mountain HIDTA Region

Source: National Drug Threat Survey.

Methamphetamine is widely available throughout the region; however, officials at the Southern Colorado HIDTA Drug Task Force report that the availability of Mexican methamphetamine in their areas decreased during 2008, particularly at the midlevel and retail level. Officials attribute this decline to Mexican Government-imposed import restrictions on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine and several large-scale pseudoephedrine seizures in Mexico that contributed to decreased Mexican methamphetamine production in 2007 and early 2008. According to law enforcement officials, decreasing availability of ice methamphetamine in the region has resulted in lower purity levels; midlevel and retail-level distributors are increasingly cutting the drug to stretch supplies and maintain profit levels. In southern Colorado the price of Mexican methamphetamine rose from a range of $5,000 to $6,000 per pound in 2006 to $14,000 to $16,000 per pound in 2007 and to $19,000 per pound in 2008. Law enforcement officials in southern Colorado seized 14 methamphetamine laboratories in 2008, compared with 11 in 2007, a small increase that may be indicative of a rise in local production as producers attempt to offset the decreased availability of Mexican methamphetamine.

Cocaine is widely available and abused in the Rocky Mountain region. Mexican DTOs transport wholesale quantities of powder cocaine to the region from Mexico, California, and New Mexico. Cocaine availability decreased in Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, and Denver during the first half of 2008, remaining below 2006 and 2007 levels through mid-2008. Law enforcement officials attribute these shortages, in part, to intercartel violence in Mexico and in the Southwest Border area, large cocaine seizures, and effective counterdrug operations. Mexican DTOs regularly supply African American and Hispanic retail-level distributors with powder cocaine, most of which is converted to crack and distributed in many of the region's metropolitan areas.

Mexican marijuana is the most widely available and abused illicit drug in the HIDTA region. Mexican DTOs typically transport commercial-grade marijuana to the region from California and the Southwest Border area, mostly by private or rental vehicle. They also transport marijuana into the region from Washington (particularly the tri-cities area of Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland). The demand for high-potency marijuana, along with distribution and abuse of the drug, is increasing in many areas of the region, such as Colorado Springs and Pueblo, and Salt Lake City, St. George, and Ogden, Utah, according to law enforcement reporting. Asian (primarily Vietnamese) traffickers transport significant quantities of high-potency marijuana to the region from Canada. Additionally, some Canada-based Asian DTOs are relocating high-potency, hydroponic indoor grow operations to the region from Canada to avoid law enforcement interdiction operations along the U.S.-Canada border and to reduce transportation costs.

Heroin (primarily Mexican black tar and brown powder) distribution and abuse levels are increasing in many areas of the Rocky Mountain HIDTA region, particularly in Salt Lake City and Denver. HIDTA officials report increased heroin distribution in secondary market areas of the region, primarily Aurora, Fort Collins, Greeley, and Pueblo, Colorado; Ogden, Orem/Provo, and St. George, Utah; Evanston, Green River, and Rocky Springs, Wyoming; and Great Falls, Montana. According to the Colorado Front Range Task Force, Mexican heroin distribution cells are expanding in size, efficiency, and sophistication, resulting in increased heroin availability, lower prices, and higher purity levels. Law enforcement officials have noted that many younger heroin users in Utah and Wyoming began abusing prescription narcotics such as OxyContin and ultimately switched to heroin because it is cheaper and easier to obtain.

A variety of other illicit drugs, primarily CPDs, pose a significant threat to various parts of the region. CPDs such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Percodan (oxycodone); Valium (diazepam); and Lortab (hydrocodone) are a substantial concern for law enforcement officials and treatment providers in Utah; the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health reports that the state leads the nation in nonmedical painkiller abuse. CPDs, particularly controlled prescription opioids, are commonly abused in Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell, Helena, and Missoula, Montana, and in Cheyenne, Colorado Springs, and Salt Lake City.

The availability and abuse of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as ecstasy) vary within the region; Wyoming and Montana law enforcement officials report low levels of MDMA availability and abuse, while officials in Denver and Salt Lake City report increased distribution and abuse. In the Denver metropolitan area, Asian criminal groups, Asian gangs, and independent Caucasian distributors are the primary suppliers of MDMA. The Metro Gang Task Force in Denver continues to seize large amounts of MDMA (seizures of 10,000 dosage units are not uncommon) from sources in California, particularly Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco. Increasing MDMA abuse is also contributing to a revival of rave-type activities in Denver and Salt Lake City. The Denver Police Department Crime Laboratory reports that MDMA drug exhibits increased approximately 38 percent from 2007 to 2008.

Other dangerous drugs (ODDs), primarily LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), BZP (N-benzylpiperazine),3 ketamine; steroids, and GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate), are available and abused to a limited extent in various metropolitan areas of the HIDTA region, including Boulder, Colorado, and Salt Lake City and Orem/Provo. Officials in the Rocky Mountain HIDTA region are reporting increased instances of BZP seizures. In 2008 the Denver Police Department Crime Laboratory, Aurora Police Department Crime Laboratory, and Colorado Bureau of Investigation reported a total of 37 BZP sample exhibits. In January 2009 alone, these agencies analyzed a total of 10 BZP exhibits, indicating a possible increase in the recreational use of the drug in the region; however, the full extent of BZP availability and abuse in the region is unknown at this time.

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Drug Trafficking Organizations

Mexican DTOs and criminal groups are the greatest organizational threat in the Rocky Mountain HIDTA region. They are well organized, extensively networked, and deeply entrenched in many communities throughout the region, which they use as a base of operation for regional and national-level drug trafficking and money laundering activities. Mexican DTOs and criminal groups exploit the Rocky Mountain HIDTA region's centralized location and highly developed transportation infrastructure to supply wholesale quantities of ice methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin to the region from sources of supply in Mexico and distribution cells along the Southwest Border. These highly organized and compartmentalized drug trafficking groups often have connections to Mexican sources of supply in Chihuahua, Durango, Guerrero, Juárez, Michoacán, Nayarit, Sinaloa, and Sonora, Mexico. They often use familial connections within the HIDTA region's large Mexican population to facilitate and conceal their illicit operations. Mexican DTOs operating in the Rocky Mountain HIDTA region maintain alliances with various criminal groups, prison gangs, street gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) to capitalize on the organizational networks that these gangs have established in the region by using them to transport, store, package, and distribute illicit drugs and to assist in money laundering activities.

Asian DTOs and criminal groups (typically Vietnamese) are the primary transporters and distributors of Canadian high-potency marijuana and MDMA in the region. Canada-based Asian criminal groups smuggle high-potency marijuana and MDMA into the region across the U.S.-Canada border through Washington and Montana. Asian DTOs are also reducing the costs and risks associated with marijuana smuggling by increasing the number of indoor cannabis grow sites that they operate within the HIDTA region. Asian traffickers coordinate the smuggling of Canadian marijuana and MDMA into the United States and the smuggling of cocaine and bulk cash into Canada, using fixed-wing aircraft, float planes, helicopters, and commercial and private vehicles. Officials also report that Asian traffickers hire local individuals as "mules" to cross the Montana-Canada border between POEs while carrying 50- to 100-pound quantities of marijuana, typically in hockey equipment bags. These loads are often transported in private vehicles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), and snowmobiles as well as on foot.

Street gangs (primarily Hispanic and African American), OMGs, Caucasian criminal groups, and local independent dealers are actively engaged in midlevel and retail-level drug distribution throughout the region. Street gangs are a significant concern to law enforcement officials because they often resort to violence when establishing and maintaining control of drug distribution territories. Hispanic street gangs, primarily affiliates of Sureños and Norteños, are midlevel and retail distributors of ice methamphetamine, powder cocaine, marijuana, black tar heroin and, to a lesser extent, crack cocaine throughout the area. Hispanic gangs are responsible for most of the assaults, home invasion robberies, and homicides that take place in major metropolitan areas of the region, such as Denver, Colorado Springs, and Salt Lake City. African American street gangs, most notably affiliates of Bloods and Crips, are the primary converters and retail distributors of crack cocaine and PCP (phencyclidine). They often convert crack cocaine locally and occasionally transport small quantities into the region after obtaining it from gang contacts in southern California. OMGs, particularly Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC), Outlaws, Bandidos, and Sons of Silence, distribute ice methamphetamine and high-potency marijuana in some areas of the region. These OMGs obtain methamphetamine from Mexican traffickers and also transport the drug from California and southwestern states. Members of HAMC smuggle significant quantities of high-potency marijuana from Canada into the United States, primarily through and between POEs in British Columbia but increasingly through POEs in Alberta and Saskatchewan, which allows them to transport it directly into the HIDTA region. Caucasian criminal groups and local independent dealers also distribute MDMA and high-potency marijuana, some of which is produced from cannabis cultivated in local indoor grow operations.

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