| Video: Oklahoma dealing with Increased MX Drug Cartel Activity | Dated 27Jan2011 | Key points: Oklahoma's highway system (I 35 and I 40 pipeline) is the primary drug conduit for the area. Cartel elements are blending in smaller local communities. MX drug cartel presence is increasing in OK. The senior law enforcement official in the video noted that the drug problem will only be solved with the assistance of citizens coordinating with local law enforcement. | Youtube; KOCO TV Oklahoma |
| ‘Operation Spider Web’ | Dated 26Jan11 | Late January 2011, Atlanta Georgia area; law enforcement officials indicted approximately 15 people with purported ties to organized criminal activity in Cobb County, Georgia. Additional arrests also resulted; some were based on immigration violations. This effort involved raids conducted against two suspected front businesses, 'Alex Tires and Rims' in Marietta and 'Emmy Tires' in Griffin, Georgia. Other techniques revealed were hiding drugs inside of tires. Items seized: 22 guns, kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine, several vehicles, "a meth lab, over $30,000 in cash". "Those seizures supplement the approximately $1 million, 75 kilograms of cocaine, over 11 pounds of methamphetamine, 16 firearms, and two grenade hulls already seized in the investigation." While the article did not note specific ties to Mexican drug cartels, the modus operandi, type of fronts, location and discovered material appear to fit that profile. |
| Mafia and Mexicans unite for drug push | Dated 31Jan11 | Article reported limited Mexican Drug Cartel and Italian Mob (Ndrangheta) collusion. Reported primary source of this information - "head of the UN's Office of Drugs and Crime in Mexico City, Antonio Mazzitelli"; he claimed the Italian mob is interested in profiting from the cartel's cocaine activities. Ndrangheta is based in Southern Italy's Calabria region. Their drug activities are ranged near 40 billion dollars in 2008 based on insights gained from their ties with the Colombian drug cartels. |
| Drug Trafficking Organizations - New England | Dated Jun 2010 | "Mexican DTOs have increased their operations in the NE HIDTA Region and are now significant wholesale suppliers of SA heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, which they transport directly from their sources of supply in Atlanta, Georgia; Houston and Dallas, Texas; and the Southwest Border area to New England. Mexican DTOs also supply limited amounts of ice methamphetamine to the region." NOTE: This assessment was produced before the MX Govt crackdown targeting senior La Familia leaders; so who's running their networks in Massachusetts is not clear at this time. | National Drug Intelligence Center |
| Drug Trafficking Organizations - North Texas | Dated Jun 2010 | This piece is filled with charts and data that identify Mexican Drug Cartel logistics and command/control centers based in the US. The document also identifies local prison and street gangs colluding with the cartel. Also noted are other drug organizations from other countries | National Drug Intelligence Center |
| Drug Trafficking Organizations Atlanta | Dated May 2010 | Focused on Atlanta, Georgia. "Mexican DTOs continue to use the Atlanta HIDTA region as the leading drug distribution center and bulk cash consolidation center in the eastern United States. They are the principal wholesale drug distributors in the region, supplying most other midlevel and retail-level traffickers in the region, particularly African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic (including Dominican) distributors." "Members of both independent cells and cartel-affiliated cells in Atlanta are increasingly recruiting into their distribution operations young men (typically in their early 20s) of Mexican descent who have been raised in the United States. Law enforcement officers report that the American upbringing of these men tends to make them more knowledgeable about American social norms, helping them to better conceal their drug trafficking activities from law enforcement." | National Drug Intelligence Center |
| Drug Trafficking Organizations | Dated May 2010 | Focused on LA, the document addresses a number of US based groups that collude with the drug cartels."The number of street gangs, prison gangs, and OMGs that distribute illicit drugs at the retail level in the Los Angeles HIDTA region is among the largest in the United States. There are approximately 250 gangs with a combined membership of over 26,000 active in the city of Los Angeles alone." | National Drug Intelligence Center |
| U.S. Southwest Border Smuggling and Violence | Dated Feb 2010 | ID's ties between Cartel, Native American criminal groups and independent dealers. Maps included…they depict points of entry. Addresses modes of transportation…Cartel efforts to gain US gang assistance in trafficking activities. Increase in assault numbers against US Border agents. Identifies several transnational gangs conducting cross border support to the cartels, while based in the US. | National Drug Intelligence Center |
| Strategy for Military Counter Drug Operations by Robert Culp | Article Key Points:The Mexican government’s approach to curtailing the criminal-insurgency must be comprehensive and populace centered. While targeting both supply and key personalities are part of the effort, those activities are only a stop-gap tool to disrupt criminal momentum. Subverting the criminal insurgency involves penetrating the movement, and disrupting the movement from the inside out. The key terrain, the center of gravity for the all the chaos we see in Mexico is tied to effective governance meeting the needs of the people. And, if Mexico does not meet the needs of the people, the people will ally themselves with entities that will. Those entities, drug trafficking organizations, have their eyes and hands on expanding their activities in the US. Comment regarding the article: The US economy appears to be getting worse, not better. People are going to look at other means to survive; providing active and/or tacit support to various criminal activities is one of them. Add the immigration factor, most of them reportedly coming from Latin America, each of the potential of being recruited or extorted to support narco-operations on US soil. If we lose neighborhoods, we lose towns; if we lose towns we lose counties; and if we lose counties, we lose states. How governments effectively meet the needs of its people will often determine who the people will ally with. |
