State Facts

Population: 8,049,313
Law Enforcement Officers: 17,983
State Prison Population: 29,964
Probation Population: 105,416
Violent Crime Rate National Ranking: 13

Drug Situation: North Carolina has experienced a significant increase in drug trafficking activity, the majority of it due to the influx of Mexican nationals into the state.

Since 1980, Raleigh's Hispanic population of immigrants has grown 1,189 percent, for an estimated 72,580 immigrants.

Also, since 1980, Charlotte's Hispanic population of immigrants has grown 962 percent, for an estimated 77,092 immigrants.

Greensboro's Hispanic immigrants grew 962 percent as well, for an estimated 62,210 immigrants.

These figures are only estimates due to the difficulty in identifying the number of immigrants located throughout the state with illegal residency.

While the immigrants themselves may not be involved in trafficking, their presence allows traffickers from Mexico to hide within ethnic Mexican communities.

They most commonly transport and distribute cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine.

In addition, the rapid population growth in areas such as Raleigh has resulted in additional crime, including an increase in drug trafficking activity.

2004 Federal Drug Seizures

Cocaine: 391.3 kgs.
Heroin: 3.1 kgs.
Methamphetamine: 12.7 kgs.
Marijuana: 237.7 kgs.
Ecstasy: 5,921 tablets
Methamphetamine Laboratories: 243 (DEA, state, and local)

Cocaine: North Carolina is a destination state for cocaine, as well as a staging and transshipment point to the more northern states along the Eastern Seaboard and in the mid-west, including Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.

Cocaine is readily available and major traffickers take advantage of the state's interstate highways, which are major transshipment routes for cocaine being transported from source areas to other states.

These major source areas are California, Arizona and Texas, with major sources of supply being traffickers based in Mexico.

Cocaine is usually shipped in private or rental vehicles.

Cocaine loads arriving in North Carolina by Mexican organizations are used to supply crack distribution networks that further present an enormous social threat to North Carolina's inner city communities.

Heroin: Heroin use and availability is extremely low in North Carolina.

Many areas of the state, such as Greenville, Durham and Rocky Mount, report that heroin abuse has been limited to an increasingly smaller population of older abusers.

Methamphetamine Lab Seizures: 2000=14, 2001=32, 2002=46, 2003=138, 2004=243

Methamphetamine: Methamphetamine cases have been on the rise in urbanized parts of North Carolina, such as Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and Asheville; however, rural communities in many counties of the western part of the state have experienced a surge in methamphetamine trafficking.

Primary sources are located in West Coast states, principally California and Arizona, but a significant supply also comes from Mexican traffickers based in northern Georgia, e.g. Gainesville and Dalton.

Ethnic Mexican traffickers from these states have been identified as the clandestine manufacturers and sources of supply for methamphetamine in multi-pound quantities.

In 2003, the Asheville Post of Duty targeted a large Gainesville-based Mexican methamphetamine trafficking group distributing over 40 pounds monthly to habitual users in western North Carolina.

Smaller methamphetamine laboratories are a significant threat in the western portion of the state.

Although on average they produce only ounce quantities of meth, they are doubling in number over the recent years and pose a significant safety hazard for first responders.

They contribute to crime and social problems in rural counties, and create a considerable resource drain on state and local governments.

DEA has joined in an aggressive campaign against meth lab “cooks.”

DEA is also actively advising local retail stores about federal laws which govern the sale of listed items, such as psuedoephedrine, iodine, and anhydrous ammonia.

The sale of any of these items to someone who is known to or suspected of manufacturing methamphetamine is subject to arrest.

Club Drugs: The Club Drugs that are most popular in North Carolina are MDMA, GHB and LSD.

The use of Dangerous Drugs has increased in popularity across the state and is especially popular with college and high-school aged people.

With more than 50 four-year colleges and universities in North Carolina, there is a large potential market for club drugs.

Ecstasy (MDMA) is also a problem, although not posing near the equivalent threat to most North Carolina communities as does cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.

Domestic intelligence gleaned from local and state agencies in North Carolina indicate that Ecstasy use is on the rise, arriving from trafficking networks in New York, Florida and California.

Most prominently distributed in larger cities and along the coastal communities, such as beach cities attracting tourist populations, authorities are targeting ecstasy distributors and their out-of-state sources of supply.

The Charlotte DO is targeting the rise of local Asian gangs trafficking MDMA and conducting money laundering for other trafficking groups.

The majority of users of the drug are in the 15 to 25 year old category caught up in the "Rave" subculture.

Law enforcement agencies have identified individuals with ties to the Pacific Northwest or West Coast regions of the country distributing bulk quantities of LSD.

Marijuana: Marijuana is one of the most prevalent drugs in North Carolina and its availability is increasing.

One cause is the recent rise in the availability of Mexican marijuana due to an influx of Mexican trafficking organizations executing smuggling operations into the state directly from Mexico via containerized cargo transported on tractor-trailer trucks, particularly in the central portion (Piedmont) of the state.

In addition, marijuana is being smuggled in ever-larger amounts via campers, pickup trucks, and larger vehicles.

Over the past five years, Domestic Cannabis Eradication Suppression Program authorities had seized domestically-grown marijuana in increasing quantities; specifically, in 2000 a total of 40,464 marijuana plants were seized, by 2001 the figure rose to 89,900 plants, and in 2002 there were 112,017 plants.

However, in 2004, only 35,965 marijuana plants were seized. (2003 figures are unavailable.)

Other Drugs: Regarding illegal pharmaceuticals, while not a prominent class of drugs for abuse like cocaine or marijuana, the illegal distribution and abuse of prescription narcotics is widespread through North Carolina.

Abusers tend to “doctor shop” for pain medication, or as in one case, learn of a clinic or pharmacy freely distributing narcotics on demand without a prescription.

Such is the case of Medi-fare Pharmacy and the adjoining Grover Medical Clinic in Grover, NC.

Before being shut down, Medi-fare was the number one dispenser of methadone in the country and the number four dispenser of OxyContin.

Together, Medi-fare and the Grover Medical Clinic supplied abusers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Michigan and Virginia with tens of thousands of dosage units monthly.

Drug-Violation Arrests: 2000=514, 2001=502, 2002=316, 2003=215, 2004=270

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 five MET deployments in the State of North Carolina since the inception of the program: Monroe, Kinston, Durham, Lumberton, and Rocky Mount.

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 two RET deployments in the State of North Carolina since the inception of the program: Asheville and Charlotte.

Other Enforcement Operations: The OCDETF programs in the Eastern, Middle, and Western Federal Judicial Districts of North Carolina are very strong.

The Western District ranks number one in prosecutions in the Southeast OCDETF Region.