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

Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• Cocaine usually is readily available throughout the South Florida HIDTA region because of the region's proximity to reliable international sources of supply; however, large cocaine seizures in drug transit areas in the Caribbean and near the Southwest Border resulted in cocaine shortages and higher wholesale cocaine prices in the South Florida HIDTA region in early 2009.
  
• The diversion, distribution, and abuse of controlled prescription drugs (CPDs) such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and diazepam are significant threats to the South Florida HIDTA region. CPD abusers are enticed in part by the ease with which they can obtain the drugs over the Internet and from retail-level distributors. The South Florida HIDTA region is a significant source area for CPDs available throughout a large portion of the eastern United States, including Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Tennessee; abusers travel to the region to illicitly purchase CPDs from various distributors and pain management clinics.
  
• Cannabis eradication data suggest increasing production of indoor grown--typically high-potency--marijuana. The total number of indoor cannabis plants eradicated in the region increased 71 percent from 2005 through 2008. Indoor cultivators, principally Cuban drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), are increasing indoor cannabis cultivation and marijuana production to satisfy the high and rising demand for high-potency marijuana in the South Florida HIDTA region and other areas. High-potency marijuana produced in the South Florida region is transported and distributed to drug markets throughout the region as well as in Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, and other central and northeastern states.
  
• The South Florida HIDTA region is a significant money laundering area used by traffickers throughout the eastern United States. According to law enforcement officials, Colombian DTOs launder multibillions of dollars in illicit drug proceeds through the Black Market Peso Exchange (BMPE); a large portion of import and export activity associated with this money laundering scheme takes place in Florida, particularly Miami. Moreover, some DTOs in the region are increasingly using the black market in Venezuela to launder illicit drug proceeds.

HIDTA Overview

The South Florida HIDTA encompasses Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties. (See Figure 1 in Preface.) The region is a principal U.S. arrival zone for powder cocaine and South American (SA) heroin; it is also a distribution center for powder cocaine, SA heroin, marijuana, and CPDs intended for distribution throughout the eastern United States, including drug markets in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.1 The South Florida HIDTA region is also a significant money laundering area used by traffickers throughout the eastern United States as a result of its sophisticated financial infrastructure and extensive international banking community.

The South Florida HIDTA region consists of a racially/ethnically diverse population and possesses a varied economy based on tourism, manufacturing, import/export businesses, banking, and information technology. As such, U.S. citizens and foreign nationals are attracted and often relocate to the South Florida HIDTA region. Moreover, many foreign nationals and/or immigrants in the region come from drug source or transit countries such as Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Venezuela. Consequently, the region's demographic and economic diversity easily enables DTOs of various races/ethnicities to blend with and exploit the local population.2

The South Florida HIDTA region has a highly developed transportation infrastructure composed of seaports, airports, and roadways, such as Interstates 75 and 95, that link it to drug source and transit areas as well as major eastern U.S. drug markets. (See Figure 2 in Transportation section.) DTOs routinely exploit this infrastructure to transport illicit drugs into, through, and from the region to other drug markets in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the eastern United States.

Footnotes

1. 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.
2. According to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2000 (the latest year for which such data are available), Caucasians account for 45 percent of the South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) population, followed by Hispanics (34%), African Americans (18%), and other races (3%).

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