Appendix C. OCDETF Regional Summaries

West Central Regional Overview

Regional Overview

The West Central Region encompasses Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois (Southern District), Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming; the region includes the Rocky Mountain and Midwest HIDTAs as well as fifteen U.S. Attorneys Districts. The West Central region is composed of urban areas as well as expansive, sparsely populated areas that include public and tribal lands. Denver (CO) and Salt Lake City (UT) are the principal distribution centers for illicit drugs in the western half of the West Central Region, and Des Moines (IA), Kansas City (KS), Omaha (NE), and St. Louis (MO) are the principal distribution centers in the eastern half of the region.

Drug Threat Overview

Methamphetamine poses the greatest overall drug threat to the West Central Region while the distribution and abuse of powder and crack cocaine and, to a lesser extent, Mexican black tar (MBT) and Mexican brown powder (MBP) heroin also are significant drug threats, particularly to urban areas. Local methamphetamine production levels have declined significantly; however, Mexican DTOs have flooded the region with a continuous and abundant supply of low-cost, high purity ice methamphetamine, which has sustained supply. Heroin availability and abuse are increasing in some areas of the region, primarily Colorado Springs and Denver (CO), St. Louis (MO), Helena (MT), and Provo, St. George, and Salt Lake City (UT). Marijuana (primarily Mexico-produced but also Canada- and locally produced marijuana) is the most widely available and abused drug in the region. The threat posed by ODDs such as GHB and analogs, khat, LSD, PCP, and psilocybin mushrooms and the diversion and abuse of pharmaceuticals such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Vicodin is low and varies by state.

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Strategic Regional Developments

• Mexican DTOs, the dominant illicit drug transporters and distributors in the West Central Region, are expanding their territory and control over drug markets in the region. They use Denver, Des Moines, Kansas City, Omaha, St. Louis, and Salt Lake City as distribution centers to supply markets in midwestern and eastern cities.

• An increasing Hispanic population in the West Central Region has contributed to the dominance of Mexican DTOs. Many undocumented Mexican and Central American nationals come to the region seeking employment, particularly at meatpacking and poultry processing plants. Mexican traffickers easily blend in with these growing Mexican and Central American communities and use them to facilitate drug trafficking operations.

• Methamphetamine production is declining throughout the region; however, Mexican DTOs have more than supplanted lost domestic production with increasing quantities of low cost, high purity ice methamphetamine produced in Mexico. Consequently, drug-related crimes including identity theft, retail theft, burglary, forgery, and currency counterfeiting often linked to increased availability and abuse of ice are increasing.

• Many law enforcement agencies in the West Central Region report a shift in manpower and resources away from investigations of local methamphetamine laboratories to investigations of Mexican DTOs responsible for the increased ice methamphetamine trafficking in the area.

• Some law enforcement personnel believe that cocaine is so abundant and in direct competition with methamphetamine in some areas, such as Denver, that Mexican DTOs are recruiting Hispanic gangs to "push" the cocaine. This has led to disputes that have fueled increases in violence over struggles to establish and retain distribution areas.

• Canada-based Vietnamese criminal groups increasingly smuggle BC Bud and MDMA into the West Central Region for local consumption and further distribution to other regions.

• Mexican DTOs are increasingly exploiting tribal lands in the West Central Region in order to further their illicit drug distribution activities. Some DTO members are providing free methamphetamine samples to Native Americans, many of whom have become addicts and, in some cases, low level distributors themselves by providing free samples or selling the drug to other Native Americans on reservation lands.

• The abuse of fentanyl and heroin combinations has emerged as a public health threat in St. Louis. There have been more than 50 overdose deaths directly attributed to fentanyl in the St. Louis area during the first 6 months of 2006.

Variations From National Trends

• The distribution and abuse of methamphetamine pose the greatest drug threat throughout the West Central Region.

• Commercial-grade Mexican marijuana is the most common type of marijuana available and abused throughout the region.

• Mexican DTOs are the primary transporters and wholesale distributors of illicit drugs in the region.

• Asian DTOs and OMGs transport illicit drugs via commercial and private vehicles across the Canada-Montana/North Dakota border.

• Asian DTOs are the primary transporters of MDMA and BC Bud in the West Central Region.

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