State Facts

Population: 1,829,146
Law Enforcement Officers: 5,705
State Prison Population: 12,000
Probation Population: 10,263
Violent Crime Rate National Ranking: 4

Drug Situation: New Mexcio falls within the El Paso Division area of responsibility.

The El Paso Division covers 54 counties in western Texas and New Mexico, comprising 778 miles (approximately 40 percent of the United States/Mexico Border.

The El Paso Division has 45 agents in New Mexico, covering an area that includes three Ports-of-Entry (POE) and six checkpoints.

The border area between New Mexico and Mexico is sparsely populated and has limited natural or man made barriers to illegal crossing. This, coupled with an extensive road network that traverses the state in all directions, makes New Mexico a haven for the transshipment of illegal drugs from Mexico to destination points throughout the United States.

New Mexico’s proximity to the El Paso/Juarez area is an additional vulnerability to illegal drugs smuggled through the major POEs.

Additional threats to the region are the shipments of controlled substances via commercial vehicles, including aircraft, buses, and by Amtrak rail.

New Mexico is also considered a hub for significant amounts of drug proceeds being laundered through small businesses.

Most of the New Mexico/Mexico international border (approximately 180 miles) is open desert and is generally uninhabited with numerous roads, trails, footpaths, and ranches allowing smugglers easy entry into the U.S. and access to major highways which traverse the country.

New Mexico encompasses over 50,000 square miles of land and is one of the largest states geographically, yet it is very sparsely populated.

Three interstate highways dissect the state: I-10 and I-40 provide east/west access along the southwest border from California to the East Coast. I-25 provides north/south access from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Colorado and Wyoming.

The largest drug threat in New Mexico is the transshipment of drugs and drug proceeds, by Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (MDTOs). MDTOs have also established local poly-drug distribution organizations that are capable of distributing multiple kilogram quantities locally and regionally.

Another factor significantly impacting New Mexico is the strain drug trafficking and immigration cases puts on the federal judicial and corrections system.

The U.S. District Court in New Mexico has the highest case load per judgeship in the nation and has the fourth busiest court overall in the United States.

The overwhelming percentages of the caseload confronting the U.S. District Court in New Mexico are immigration and drug cases.

In addition to an overloaded court system, the state of New Mexico is critically short on jail space.

Current enhanced enforcement operations by the Department of Homeland Security in Arizona will most likely force drug traffickers and alien smugglers to shift their smuggling efforts from Arizona to New Mexico. This, in turn, will have a serious impact on enforcement operations and judicial proceedings in New Mexico.

2004 Federal Drug Seizures

Cocaine: 913.6 kgs.
Heroin: 1.3 kgs.
Methamphetamine: 60.0 kgs.
Marijuana: 42,666.2 kgs.
Ecstasy: 144 tablets
Methamphetamine Laboratories: 88 (DEA, state, and local)

Cocaine: The El Paso/Juarez corridor serves as a transshipment point for cocaine to various locations in the United States.

Seized loads range from 50-800 pounds.

Cocaine is transported through New Mexico by MDTOs at an increasing rate.

Multiple kilogram quantities are routinely seized from commercial trucks, public transportation and private vehicles.

The most common seizures are privately owned vehicles interdicted with ten to fifty kilograms of cocaine concealed in their vehicle.

Cocaine interdicted in New Mexico is typically destined for Denver, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, and Chicago.

Recent cocaine interdictions indicate a possible shift to other destination cites in the Midwest and East Coast.

Cocaine is also readily available for distribution throughout New Mexico in gram to ounce quantities for local consumption.

Local law enforcement authorities consistently rank cocaine and crack cocaine distribution and use as one of the most prominent drug problems.

Crack Cocaine: There is ample availability of crack cocaine throughout New Mexico.

In smaller municipalities, such as Hobbs and Silver City, crack cocaine use and distribution is at a level that is considered dangerous to the quality of life.

The majority of the crack available comes from cocaine HCl supplied by MDTOs to local crack distributors who then convert the powder cocaine into crack.

Ethnic gangs are the primary distributors of crack cocaine in urban areas posing a threat to school children.

Street level distributors can be found in all social and economic layers of the community.

Of special concern is the high level of violence associated with crack cocaine traffickers.

Heroin: Mexican black tar and brown heroin are routinely seized at the POEs in New Mexico.

Black tar heroin has long been available in this region from sources in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Michoacan, and Nayarit.

Heroin is most commonly smuggled in secret compartments in private vehicles and concealed on persons.

In Albuquerque, Mexican black tar heroin is the most readily available and widely abused.

The heroin is usually carried across the border by couriers.

Northern New Mexico has a high availability of Mexican black tar heroin and is a major problem for local law enforcement agencies.

Heroin availability has shown a steady increase over the past five years as evidenced by the increase in kilogram seizures and a steady decrease in price.

An area north of Santa Fe known as the Espanola Valley is consistently rated by the U.S. Department of Health and other statistical reporting agencies as having the highest per capita heroin overdose death rate in United States.

Local enforcement efforts have resulted in numerous arrests, however MDTOs routinely rotate their cell managers and other persons frequently making long-term enforcement operations difficult to pursue.

Methamphetamine Lab Seizures: 2000=50, 2001=103, 2002=125, 2003=190, 2004=88

Methamphetamine: Methamphetamine poses a multi-pronged threat in this region.

It is available in multi-kilogram quantities.

The majority of methamphetamine seized originates in Mexico, but arrives in New Mexico from distributors in Los Angeles, CA and Phoenix, AZ.

Methamphetamine investigations are especially prevalent in the area known as the Four Corners region where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet to form a common border and along the eastern New Mexico/Texas border.

Popular in the area are small, clandestine laboratories set up in remote, rural locations.

In southern New Mexico, closer to Las Cruces and El Paso, the current preferred process is the "Birch method," that uses chemicals, such as anhydrous ammonia, to process the methamphetamine. Use of the "Birch method" is believed to be an attempt by small laboratory operators to acquire non-controlled chemicals for production, in order to subvert law enforcement scrutiny.

Club Drugs and Hallucinogens: MDMA (ecstasy), Ketamine, LSD, and GHB are available in New Mexico, primarily in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Rave parties are held routinely in the area, often in remote locations on U.S. Forest Service lands.

Attempts to infiltrate these parties have been moderately successful, resulting in several arrests of low level dealers. Interdiction seizures account for the bulk of club drugs and hallucinogens seized.

The majority of these seizures originate in the Los Angeles and Phoenix areas.

Prescription Drugs: The diversion of prescription drugs continues to be a significant enforcement issue.

Illegal or improper prescription practices are the primary source for illegally obtained prescription drugs, primarily in the oxycodone/hydrocodone families.

Interdiction efforts also indicate that prescription drug smuggling from Mexico, where these drugs can be sold over the counter, contributes to the illegal distribution of prescription medications.

Compounding this issue is the state's severe shortage of qualified medical personnel forcing state authorities to grant prescriptive authority to practitioners not licensed in other states.

New Mexico has recently become one of the few states to grant prescribing authority to psychologists who have no medical or pharmaceutical training.

Marijuana: Marijuana is the most frequently controlled substance that is seized in the New Mexico area and are generally destined for distribution in eastern markets.

Marijuana loads seized from private vehicles and semi-tractor-trailers range from 500 to 8,000 pounds.

Multi-pound and multi-ton marijuana seizures occur at all transportation terminals, U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoints, and local courier service locations.

Marijuana smuggled from Mexico is available from a multitude of sources in New Mexico and western Texas and is the most prevalent drug in New Mexico.

New Mexico's vast National Forest land makes the domestic cultivation of marijuana an enforcement issue as well.

Other Dangerous Drugs: Several drugs in this category are available because of El Paso's close proximity to Juarez, Mexico, where purchases can be made over-the-counter from unscrupulous pharmacists.

Ecstasy, Rohypnol, and other pharmaceuticals are being used at rave parties.

The use of these types of drugs has not skyrocketed, as in other metropolitan areas in the United States.

Drug-Violation Arrests: 2000=607, 2001=621, 2002=598, 2003=534, 2004=690

DEA Mobile Enforcement Teams: This cooperative program with state and local law enforcement counterparts was conceived in 1995 in response to the overwhelming problem of drug-related violent crime in towns and cities across the nation.

Since the inception of the MET Program, a total of 436 deployments have been completed nationwide, resulting in 18,318 arrests.

There have been seven MET deployments in the state of New Mexico since the inception of the program, in Clayton, Albuquerque, Portales, Las Vegas, Deming, Espanola, and Clovis.

DEA Regional Enforcement Teams: This program was designed to augment existing DEA division resources by targeting drug organizations operating in the United States where there is a lack of sufficient local drug law enforcement.

This program was conceived in 1999 in response to the threat posed by drug trafficking organizations that have established networks of cells to conduct drug trafficking operations in smaller, non-traditional trafficking locations in the United States.

As of January 31, 2005, there have been 27 deployments nationwide, and one deployment in the U.S. Virgin Islands, resulting in 671 arrests.

There have been no RET deployments in the state of New Mexico.

Drug Proceeds: The transportation route through the western Texas and New Mexico areas facilitates drugs coming into the U.S. and money being sent back to Mexico.

These drug proceeds are difficult to trace and seize. Money is often laundered through legitimate businesses and money exchange houses.

Conducting financial investigations leading to the identification and seizure of assets used to facilitate drug smuggling operations, or acquired as a benefit of such an enterprise, is an effective deterrent.

Currency seizures also indicate that New Mexico is being utilized to return drug proceeds to Mexico and to the wholesale distributors in Arizona and California.

Two areas of concern for money laundering activities in the state are that:

Approximately 14 Native American owned and operated casinos that handle billions of dollars in cash that are almost completely unregulated by state and Federal authorities.

In Las Cruces, New Mexico, less than 50 miles from the United States/Mexico border, there are over 200 banking facilities, including many that operate from private residences, that are not FDIC insured. Other cities of similar size average 5-10 banking facilities.

Special Topics: The New Mexico HIDTA region was designated in 1990 as one of the five regions of the Southwest Border HIDTA.

The region encompasses thirteen counties, three Ports-of-Entry, and about 180 miles of international border shared with Mexico.

The New Mexico HIDTA is currently seeking supplementary funding to address the heroin issue in northern New Mexico.

The New Mexico HIDTA is also in the process of restructuring its Intelligence Support Center in order to more effectively target major Mexican and regional DTOs.