NCJ Number
227620
Date Published
March 2009
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This 2009 overview of the illicit drug situation in the Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) highlights significant trends and law enforcement concerns related to the trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs.
Abstract
The Midwest HIDTA region consists of 74 counties in a 7-State area that is centrally located between eastern and western drug markets and stretches North Dakota to Missouri. The region has an extensive transportation infrastructure, making it a significant transshipment area for drug traffickers. Most major interstate highways from the northern United States pass through and intersect in the region, facilitating the movement of drugs from the Mexico (Southwest) border to United States-Canada (Northern) border. Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) dominate the transportation and wholesale distribution of illicit drugs in the region, while African-American and Hispanic street gangs control most of the retail distribution of these drugs in this region. Several Midwest HIDTA States, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, have seen a resurgence of local methamphetamine production due to the lack of a centralized reporting system for pseudoephedrine purchases in the region. Law enforcement officials report an increase in the abuse of controlled prescription drugs (CPDs) in the region, and officials in Springfield, MO; Minot, ND; and Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Watertown, and Brookings County, SD report an increase in 2008 in the availability and abuse of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or ecstasy). Figures, tables, and list of sources