NCJ Number
227609
Date Published
April 2009
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This overview of the illicit drug situation in the Atlanta High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) highlights significant trends and law enforcement concerns related to the trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs.
Abstract
The Atlanta HIDTA consists of 12 counties that compose a large portion of the Atlanta, GA, metropolitan area, as well as 5 counties that compose the Raleigh, NC, metropolitan area. The region is a principal drug distribution center for Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) that supply illicit drugs to drug markets in the Eastern United States. These DTOs also use the region as a bulk cash consolidation center, storing millions of dollars in suburban Atlanta stash houses before transporting the cash to the Southwest Border area and Mexico. The influence of the Mexican DTOs on the region is unmatched by any other trafficking organization or group. These DTOs supply the vast majority of powder cocaine, ice methamphetamine, commercial-grade marijuana, and heroin that is available in the Atlanta HIDTA region. In 2008, violence committed by Mexican DTOs against other Mexican traffickers increased in the Atlanta area. Violence is often used to collect money owed from drug debts and to intimidate other drug traffickers in the region. Shortages in wholesale quantities of powder cocaine first noted in 2007 continued to be reported by several law enforcement officers in the Atlanta HIDTA region. Fifteen of the 16 respondents in North Carolina counties in the Atlanta HIDTA region reported that cocaine is the greatest drug threat in their jurisdiction. Cocaine, both powder and crack, is the primary illicit substance most often identified in treatment admissions to publicly funded facilities in the region. The report projects that Mexican DTOs will continue to dominate the wholesale transportation and distribution of powder cocaine, commercial-grade marijuana, ice methamphetamine, and heroin to the Atlanta HIDTA region. 5 tables, 3 figures, and a listing of data sources for this report