U.S. Department of Justice
National Drug Intelligence Center
National Gang Intelligence Center
Eastern Pennsylvania Drug and Gang Threat Assessment 2011
March 2011

Executive Summary

The influence of New York area (New York City and northern New Jersey) drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and gangs reaches nearly every sizable drug market in eastern Pennsylvania.a Dominican DTOs and gangs are the most active of these groups, and their influence within the region is increasing except in select drug markets where Mexican DTOs are dominant and growing. In Philadelphia and Reading, for instance, the influence of Dominican DTOs has diminished since 2008, when Mexican DTOs emerged as the principal wholesale drug distributors, supplying hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and heroin each year to eastern Pennsylvania drug markets. Drug-related violence, committed primarily by criminal groups against other criminals, is increasing in several eastern Pennsylvania communities even as overall violent crime rates are decreasing throughout the region.

Emerging trends in the region include the following:

• New York area gangs--previously significant but ad hoc suppliers of drugs to eastern Pennsylvania--are becoming increasingly organized, entrenched, and dominant in many eastern Pennsylvania drug markets.
   
• Cocaine and heroin trafficking have represented the greatest drug-related law enforcement and healthcare challenges to communities in eastern Pennsylvania for many years. However, heroin trafficking has increased sharply in recent years, emerging as the single greatest drug threat to the region.
   
• Heroin abuse among adolescents is increasing in eastern Pennsylvania, in part because some adolescent prescription opioid abusers are transitioning to heroin.
   
• Dominican DTOs and gangs--the most prolific drug distributors in eastern Pennsylvania--are strengthening their operations in Hazleton, a strategic location where they are dominating and expanding drug distribution.
   
• Mexican DTOs are the dominant wholesale cocaine distributors in Philadelphia and Reading drug markets. They are increasingly transporting wholesale shipments of cocaine from the Southwest Border to Philadelphia and Reading, contributing to strong and stable cocaine availability in those drug markets.
   
• Rival gangs and organized thieves are more frequently engaging in home invasions, ransom kidnappings, and organized thefts from drug dealers in many eastern Pennsylvania drug markets.
   
• Coatesville, Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Lebanon have experienced an increase in organized and deliberate drug-related violence perpetrated by street gangs and independent robbery crews that target other criminals, particularly drug dealers in possession of cash.

The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) assesses with high confidenceb that the influence of Mexican DTOs will increase in eastern Pennsylvania drug markets, spurred by the ability of these groups to supply the markets with cocaine shipments directly from the Southwest Border area and supported by growing Mexican populations in the region, which they use as cover to mask their operations. Furthermore, NDIC assesses with moderate confidence that incidents of drug-related violence against law enforcement officers will increase, as evidenced by rising levels of aggression by some gang members. NDIC assesses with high confidence that heroin use will increase in the near term as high availability and low prices encourage an increasing prescription opioid abuser population to transition to heroin. Finally, NDIC assesses with high confidence that members affiliated with New York area gangs will move farther into Penn-sylvania drug markets--including those in central and western Pennsylvania--where drug prices are higher and where smaller communities often lack the law enforcement strength to deter highly organized drug distribution groups.

Footnotes

a. For the purposes of this assessment, eastern Pennsylvania is defined as the counties that make up the U.S. Attorneys Office Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.
b. "High confidence" generally indicates that the judgments are based on high-quality information or that the nature of the issue makes it possible to render a solid judgment. "Medium confidence" generally means that the information is credibly sourced and plausible but can be interpreted in various ways, or is not of sufficient quality or corroborated sufficiently to warrant a higher level of confidence. "Low confidence" generally means that the information's credibility or plausibility is questionable, the information is too fragmented or poorly corroborated to make a solid analytic inference, or there are significant concerns or problems with the sources.