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DEA
Offices & Telephone Nos.
Cape Girardeau575-334-1534
Jefferson City—573-635-1331
Kansas City913-825-4100
Springfield417-831-3948
St. Louis314-538-4600 |
State Facts
Population: 5,800,310
State Prison Population: 31,081
Probation Population: 53,832
Violent Crime Rate
National Ranking: 16 |
2006
Federal Drug Seizures
Cocaine: 615.3 kgs.
Heroin: 11.9 kgs.
Methamphetamine: 41.8 kgs.
Marijuana: 1,834.5 kgs./3 du
Hashish: 0.0 kgs
MDMA: 0.0 kgs/1,182 du
Meth
Lab Incidents: 1,288
(DEA, state, and local) |
Drug Situation: Mexican poly-drug trafficking organizations control a large majority of the distribution of methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin in Missouri. Various organizations with ties to Texas, Arizona and California continue to traffic in cocaine and heroin. In addition, small toxic methamphetamine laboratories are found in all areas of Missouri.
Cocaine: Cocaine remains readily available throughout the St. Louis area and is abused by all social and ethnic groups. Much of the cocaine is converted to crack and sold in the inner-city areas. Cocaine typically comes from sources of supply in Texas and California that are associated with Mexican international distribution organizations. Both cocaine HCl and crack cocaine are readily available in the Kansas City Metropolitan area. Hispanic traffickers control the wholesale distribution of cocaine, while many ethnic groups participate in retail level distribution.
Heroin: The evolving heroin situation in the St. Louis area, particularly the growing availability of higher-purity white heroin has become a significant concern to drug law enforcement in the area. Although Mexican black-tar heroin continues to be the most readily available type of heroin found in St. Louis, the higher-purity white heroin is encountered with increasing frequency. While low purity, Mexican black-tar heroin dominates the market, some high purity (64% and 69%) Mexican black-tar heroin has been noted in the recent past.The availability of heroin in Missouri outside of Saint Louis and Kansas City remains very limited.
Some interdictions
of larger quantities of South American white heroin have occurred in
the past year. In each instance, the heroin was believed
to be enroute to Chicago, Illinois.
![Methamphetamine Lab Incidents: 2002=2759, 2003=2886, 2004=2807, 2005=2170, 2006=1,268](missouri_meth2007.gif) Methamphetamine: Methamphetamine
is widely available throughout Missouri, particularly in the rural
areas. It is either manufactured locally or smuggled into the state
by Hispanic organizations based in Mexico or the southwest United States
and distributed in St. Louis, Kansas City and southeast Missouri. Methamphetamine
smuggled into the state is generally of lower purity than methamphetamine
than is locally manufactured, although encounters of higher purity “ice” methamphetamine
from originating from outside Missouri have increased. In 2004, Missouri
passed legislation restricting the sale of products containing pseudoephedrine,
resulting in a dramatic decrease in the number of methamphetamine labs
in Missouri.
Predatory
Drugs: MDMA
(ecstasy) continues to be available St. Louis, Kansas City and southeast
and southwest Missouri. MDMA and GHB are widely available in dance
clubs. MDMA is obtained by local distributors from sources of supply
in California, New York, Florida, Texas and Washington state.
Marijuana: Marijuana
is prevalent throughout the state Missouri. Mexican marijuana is imported
into the state primarily on interstate highways in automobiles, commercial
trucks, vans, horse trailers, rental trucks, and motor homes from the
southwest border. There has also been an increasing availability of
marijuana from Canada and the northwest United States.
Indoor marijuana grow operations are found in the St. Louis and Kansas
City areas. Outdoor grow operations are found in the rural parts of the
state.
Other Drugs: OxyContin continues to be the pharmaceutical drug of choice in the St. Louis area. It is favored by it’s users over street drugs such as heroin due to the consistent purity and quality. Law enforcement and treatment professionals report that the abuse of pharmaceutical drugs continue to be a major problem throughout the states of the St. Louis Division. After OxyContin, all of the states cite Hydrocodone products as the most commonly abused pharmaceutical substance. The most common methods for obtaining these substances continue to be doctor shopping, prescription forgeries, pharmacy break-ins, employee theft, and internet pharmacy websites.
Pharmaceutical Diversion: Current investigations indicate that diversion of hydrocodone products such as Vicodin®, and oxycodone products such as OxyContin® continues to be a problem in Missouri. Primary methods of diversion being reported are forged prescriptions, employee theft, pharmacy theft, illegal sale and distribution by health care professionals and workers, “doctor shopping” (going to a number of doctors to obtain prescriptions for a controlled pharmaceutical), and the Internet. Alprazolam, methadone, codeine, Adderall® and Ritalin® were also identified as being among the most commonly abused and diverted pharmaceuticals in Missouri.
DEA Mobile Enforcement Teams: This cooperative program with state and local law enforcement counterparts was conceived in 1995 in response to the overwhelming problem of drug-related violent crime in towns and cities across the nation. Since the inception of the MET Program, 473 deployments have been completed nationwide, resulting in 19,643 arrests. There have been 11 MET deployments in the State of Missouri since the inception of the program: Sikeston, Fountain Park, St. Charles County, Audrain County, Crystal City, Berkeley, Hannibal, Franklin County (2), Joplin, and Springfield.
DEA
Regional Enforcement Teams:
This program was designed to augment existing DEA division resources
by targeting drug organizations operating in the United States where
there is a lack of sufficient local drug law enforcement. This program
was conceived in 1999 in response to the threat posed by drug trafficking
organizations that have established networks of cells to conduct drug
trafficking operations in smaller, non-traditional trafficking locations
in the United States. As of January 31, 2005, there have been 27 deployments
nationwide, and one deployment in the U.S. Virgin Islands, resulting
in 671 arrests. There has been one RET deployment in the state of Missouri
since the inception of the program, in Springfield/Joplin.
Special
Topics:
The St. Louis Homicide Initiative was created by DEA St. Louis and the
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to address and combat the city's
increase in drug related homicides. The objectives of this initiative
are to identify violent organizations involved in drug trafficking activity
and to develop investigative leads by use of court authorized telephone
intercepts to clear unsolved homicides and related crimes. Missouri is
crossed by a number of interstate highways (Interstates 44, 64, and 70
from east to west; 35 and 55 from north to south), providing excellent
smuggling routes for drug trafficking organizations. During 2004, highway
interdictions in Missouri led to seizures including approximately 500
kilograms of cocaine, 950 grams of heroin, 16,400 pounds of marijuana,
9 pounds of methamphetamine HCl, 3.5 pounds of crystal methamphetamine,
48 ounces of PCP, 500 dosage units of LSD, 50 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms,
and over $3.5 million dollars.
More information
about the St. Louis Division Office.
Sources
Factsheet
last updated:
6/2007
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