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National Drug Intelligence Center
National Drug Threat Assessment 2007
October 2006
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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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The distribution and abuse of methamphetamine pose the
greatest drug threat throughout the West Central Region.
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Commercial-grade Mexican marijuana is the most common type of
marijuana available and abused throughout the region.
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Mexican DTOs are the primary transporters and wholesale
distributors of illicit drugs in the region.
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Asian DTOs and OMGs transport illicit drugs via commercial and
private vehicles across the Canada-Montana/North Dakota border.
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Asian DTOs are the primary transporters of MDMA and BC Bud in
the West Central Region.
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