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The Nevada HIDTA region consists of Clark and Washoe Counties. Las Vegas (Clark County) and Reno (Washoe County) are the two largest metropolitan areas in the HIDTA region and are distribution centers for illicit drugs supplied to markets throughout the HIDTA region and other areas of the United States. Clark County is located less than 300 miles from Los Angeles, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, and less than 400 miles from several official ports of entry (POEs) along the Southwest Border, including Douglas and Nogales in Arizona and Calexico, Otay Mesa, and San Ysidro in California. Washoe County is located on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains and is less than 200 miles from San Francisco, California.
Clark County covers 7,910 square miles. Interstate 15, located in the southern tip of the state, is a primary route used by traffickers to transport illicit drugs from Los Angeles and southern California to Las Vegas; traffickers also use I-80 to transport illicit drugs from California drug markets into and through the northern part of the state. U.S. Highways 93 and 95 provide traffickers with additional routes to Las Vegas from drug markets in the Phoenix area and the Nogales and Douglas POEs.
In 2007, Clark County accounted for 71 percent of the state population (1,954,319 of 2,718,337). Approximately 27 percent of the Clark County population is Hispanic, the area's largest and fastest-growing minority group. Since 1990, the Hispanic population in Clark County has increased four times faster than the non-Hispanic population. The growing Hispanic population enables Mexican DTOs to easily assimilate into Clark County's communities, expand their drug trafficking activities, recruit new members, and reduce their risk of law enforcement detection.
Washoe County, which borders California and Oregon, covers an area of 6,600 square miles in the northwest section of Nevada. Major roadways that transit Washoe County include I-80, which passes through Reno and connects the county with San Francisco to the west and major metropolitan areas, such as Salt Lake City, Utah; Denver, Colorado; and Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, to the east. Traffickers use I-80 to supply most of the illicit drugs available in the county. US 395 transits Washoe County and intersects with I-80 in Reno. Traffickers use US 395 to move drugs from California into the region through Reno and Carson City, Nevada.
The population of Washoe County increased 23 percent from nearly 340,000 in 2000 to an estimated 418,000 in 2007. Steady growth in the county's Hispanic population, including a significant influx of illegal immigrants, has been exploited by Mexican DTOs to expand their operations in the area. Approximately 20 percent of the population in Washoe County is Hispanic, accounting for the county's largest minority group.
The gaming and entertainment industry attracts over 40 million visitors to the Nevada HIDTA region annually. Drug traffickers often use the large volume of tourists as cover for their illicit drug transportation and distribution operations. Traffickers typically move illicit drugs to or through the region in the same modes of transportation used by tourists--personal and commercial vehicles, buses, trains, and aircraft. Moreover, the nature of the 24-hour lifestyle in the gaming and entertainment industry attracts some visitors who may be vulnerable to drug abuse, thus compounding local drug distribution in the region. Additionally, the high volume of cash transactions taking place in the local gaming and entertainment industry provides opportunities for drug traffickers to commingle their illicit funds with gaming proceeds in an attempt to mask the origin of such funds.
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