U.S. Department of Justice
National Drug Intelligence Center
New York/New Jersey HIDTA Drug Market Analysis 2010
June 2010

HIDTA Overview

(U) The NY/NJ HIDTA region encompasses 22 counties throughout New York and northeastern New Jersey. The New York portion of the region consists of the five boroughs of New York City (Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island), the outer two counties of Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk), Westchester County (just north of New York City), four counties in Upstatea New York (Albany, Erie, Monroe, and Onondaga), and three counties (Clinton, Franklin, and St. Lawrence) along the U.S.-Canada border that were added in 2009.b The New Jersey portion consists of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, and Union Counties, as well as Mercer and Middlesex Counties,c which were added in 2009.

(U) The New York City metropolitan area is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the United States; many foreign-born criminals are able to easily assimilate within ethnic communities and mask their operations throughout the area. Significant numbers of people from drug source and transit countries reside in various parts of the region. For instance, the Jackson Heights section of Queens contains the largest Colombian community outside Colombia, and the Washington Heights section of Upper Manhattan--the center of drug activity in the city--is home to a large concentration of Dominican-born residents.

Figure 1. (U) New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area

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Footnotes

a. (U) For the purposes of this report, Upstate New York refers to the area of New York State outside the area of New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County. Areas referred to in western New York (Buffalo, etc.) are included in Upstate New York.
b. (U) Clinton, Franklin, and St. Lawrence Counties in Upstate New York were added to the HIDTA region because they are primarily rural and sparsely populated and have numerous unattended roads, trails, and waterways, facilitating smugglers' efforts to transport illicit drugs across the U.S.-Canada border. Further, the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, located in Franklin County and straddling the U.S.-Canada border, is a significant transportation corridor for high-potency Canadian marijuana and MDMA.
c. (U) In 2009, the counties of Mercer and Middlesex were added to the NY/NJ HIDTA because of the increasing number of drug trafficking organizations operating there.

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