Text: ONDCP Chief Releases Report on Drug Threats Across United States

05 December 2000

Text: ONDCP Chief Releases Report on Drug Threats Across United States

Different regions face diverse threats, says McCaffrey

The nature of illegal drug activity varies widely throughout the United States, says General Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

McCaffrey, appearing at a December 5 press conference to discuss a newly released report on regional drug threats and strategies, praised the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program for closely monitoring diffuse patterns of drug abuse across the country and for devising "specific strategies to confront those threats."

Following is the text of a December 5 press release issued by the ONDCP, outlining the report's conclusions:

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WHITE HOUSE DRUG CZAR MCCAFFREY TO RELEASE REPORT ON REGIONAL DRUG THREATS AND STRATEGIES ACROSS UNITED STATES

REPORT SHOWS "DIFFUSE THREAT; NO LONGER ANY ONE DRUG THAT CONSUMES AMERICA"

Washington, D.C. -- Barry R. McCaffrey, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will release a report on regional drug threats across the United States at the National HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas) Conference on Tuesday, December 5th, at the Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.

The H.I.D.T.A. program, overseen by Director McCaffrey and funded by Congress, designates 26 regions of the country which are heavily affected by illegal drug activity. The HIDTAs in each area are "catalysts for coordination," according to McCaffrey, between local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, sharing intelligence, data, manpower, and other resources. Each of the 26 HIDTAs and five southwest border partnerships has compiled data over the past year of the actual drug threats facing their regions and developed specific strategies to confront those threats.

"The diffuse nature of the threat is one of the major themes of the report," said Director McCaffrey. "There no longer is any one drug that consumes America as cocaine did in the 1980s. We need to be ready to defend against emerging threats of a wide variety by region, as well as increasingly sophisticated changes in the operations of drug traffickers. Patterns of trafficking and abuse vary widely from heroin in Baltimore, Boston, and Orlando; to methamphetamine in the Midwest and West; to Ecstasy along the eastern seaboard; to marijuana in the Appalachian states and the Pacific Northwest. Law enforcement is a primary line of defense, and the HIDTA program is one of America's most powerful tools for addressing the drug problem."

Examples of threats and strategies from selected HIDTA regions, December 2000:

-- New England now faces a more powerful form of heroin that has resulted in an unprecedented rise in heroin-related deaths and hospital emergency department admissions for overdoses. The Boston-based HIDTA was designated in 1999 to address this new influx of heroin coming across the Canadian border.

-- Houston has identified 164 drug organizations-primarily Mexican and Colombian-with 48% of them trafficking cocaine, 9% heroin, 7% methamphetamine, and 7% hallucinogens. Violent gang activities are decreasing. New state legislation has been introduced with laws governing money wiring businesses and the sale of paint thinners and other potential inhalants to minors.

-- South Florida has approximately 275 full-time people from 29 agencies devoted exclusively to targeting Colombian cartels and other international criminals that use Miami as a port of entry. HIDTA has addressed the increasing problem of "smurfing" -- the practice of keeping each drug-related cash transaction under $10,000 to avoid filing proper ban-king records and IRS required notifications. HIDTA has also made major inroads at the Miami International Airport, contributing to disabling over 70 persons employed by airlines or related service industries and involved in internal smuggling conspiracies. Judges can now instantaneously retrieve information on drug offenders from multiple sources. Cocaine and crack remain the Miami regions' primary illicit drugs of choice, with a rise in "designer drugs" such as MDMA (Ecstasy) and heroin.

-- Washington/Baltimore identified nearly 200 drug trafficking organizations. Baltimore is seeing an upsurge in ecstasy. High purity and inexpensive heroin is readily available in many areas of the region. Powder and crack cocaine availability also remains high, though use and overdose indicators point to a decrease in its impact on the region. The presence of methamphetamine, while not a substantial threat, is increasing in this region. Violent crime, with its inextricable link to drug abuse, is down in one year by: 13% (robberies), 4.0% (aggravated assault), 3.3% (rapes), and 2.1% (murder).

-- Rocky Mountain area shows methamphetamine as the area's number one threat. Designer drugs, such as MDMA (Ecstasy), are reported as a rising threat, reflecting a general trend throughout the southwestern U.S. HIDTA has targeted drug trafficking organizations and street gangs who distribute crack cocaine heavily. Hallucinogen usage is active. Of 32 initiatives in the region, 25 focus on investigation of drug organizations, particularly meth labs.

-- Chicago is facing a strong threat of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and a growing trend towards use of "club drugs" (ecstasy) in suburbs among youth in their late teens and early 20s. McCaffrey stated, "Chicago is the drug gateway to the Midwest." The report asserts that Chicago is a major distribution hub of narcotics and other controlled substances. "HIDTA in this area has had continual success in providing federal money laundering expertise to state and local agencies, as well as the implementation of a rail interdiction system for the first time."

-- Appalachia targets marijuana, which is the number-one cash crop in region, exceeding even tobacco, the number-one legitimate cash crop. HIDTA efforts geared at the eradication of marijuana crops in Kentucky for 1999 yielded plants valued at $787,088,000 which exceeded tobacco by nearly $9,000,000. "Appalachia disproves the notion that marijuana cultivation and production is only a Southern or Western problem," said McCaffrey.

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