State
Facts
Population: 5,130,632
Law
Enforcement Officers: 15,891
State Prison
Population: 24,336
Probation Population: 57,076
Violent Crime Rate
National Ranking:
15 |
2001
Federal Drug Seizures
Cocaine: 3,345.7 kgs.
Heroin: 7.9 kgs.
Methamphetamine:
168.6 kgs.
Marijuana: 218,877.8 kgs.
Clandestine
Laboratories: 320 (DEA, state,
and local) |
Top 13 cities in ArizonaSuprise
Avondale
Flagstaff
Yuma
Peoria
Gilbert Town
Tempe
Chandler
Scottsdale
Glendale
Mesa
Tuscon
Phoenix
Arizona shares a 370-mile
border with Mexico. This border area, a large portion of which is open and
sparsely populated, cannot be continuously monitored by border enforcement
agencies and is used extensively by drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) to
smuggle illicit drugs into the United States.
Significant quantities of
methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana are smuggled from Mexico into
Arizona. Federal-wide Drug Seizure System (FDSS) data indicate that Arizona
ranked second in the country behind Texas in the total quantity of illicit
drugs seized in 2002. Arizona ranked second in the amount of marijuana seized,
third in the amount of methamphetamine, sixth in the amount of cocaine, and
fifteenth in the amount of heroin seized.
There are six land ports of entry
(POEs) along the Arizona portion of the U.S.-Mexico border, including (from
west to east) San Luis, Lukeville, Sasabe, Nogales, Naco, and Douglas. Nogales
and Douglas operate 24 hours a day and are the busiest POEs in the state. There
are numerous unofficial entry points (gates) located in remote areas along the
border between Arizona and Mexico. In 2002 more than 10 million private
vehicles, more than 9 million pedestrians, and 312,000 commercial trucks
entered Arizona from Mexico. This volume of cross-border traffic facilitates
illicit drug transportation and distribution into and throughout the
state.
Arizona is a national-level distribution center for illicit drugs,
largely due to its multifaceted transportation infrastructure. Drug traffickers
commonly use private vehicles and commercial trucks to smuggle illicit drugs
into and through the state. Couriers traveling aboard commercial aircraft,
commercial buses, and passenger railcars and package delivery services also are
used by traffickers, but to a lesser extent. DTOs and criminal groups generally
use Interstates 8, 10, 17, 19, and 40 as well as U.S. Highways 85 and 86 as
primary routes for transporting drugs throughout Arizona and from Arizona to
other regions of the country. Interstate 8 extends from San Diego through Yuma
and terminates at I-10, approximately midway between Phoenix and Tucson.
Interstate 10 spans the entire country, connecting Arizona, particularly
Phoenix and Tucson, with the West Coast at Los Angeles and the East Coast at
Jacksonville, Florida. Interstate 17 connects Phoenix to Flagstaff and provides
access to eastern and western states via I-40. Interstate 19 connects Nogales
on the U.S.-Mexico border with I-10 at Tucson. Interstate 40 originates at I-15
in Barstow, California, passes through Arizona, and terminates at Wilmington,
North Carolina. US 85 begins at the U.S.-Mexico border and ends in the Phoenix
metropolitan area. US 86 splits from US 85 and extends eastward to Tucson.
Operation Pipeline Operation Pipeline is a national highway interdiction
program supported by the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC).
Drug
seizures are reported to Operation Pipeline by federal, state, and local law
enforcement agencies nationwide operating along highways and interstates most
frequently used to transport illegal drugs and drug proceeds. Arizona has six
international airports, which include Bisbee-Douglas International Airport,
Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport, Nogales International Airport, Phoenix
Sky Harbor International Airport, Tucson International Airport, and Yuma
International Airport. The state also has over 75 smaller public airports, more
than 200 private airports, and an estimated 600 abandoned airstrips. Drug
traffickers often use these airports and airstrips to smuggle illicit drugs
into the United States. Moreover, traffickers reportedly establish clandestine
airstrips near the U.S.-Mexico border to further facilitate their drug
smuggling efforts. Occasionally, pilots evade radar and land at remote
locations in Arizona including abandoned airstrips or long stretches of
highway. The Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center (AMICC), which
uses radar to track aircraft approaching the U.S.-Mexico border, reports that
aircraft often "fade" from radar near the border and appear to land at Mexican
airports, airfields, and remote locations. Many fades are indicative of
traffickers moving drugs to the border and offloading the shipments for
smuggling overland into Arizona. Fade activity is greater in Sonora, the
Mexican state bordering Arizona, than in any other bordering Mexican state. In
2002 nearly 54 percent of fades (534 of 990) along the U.S.-Mexico border
occurred in the state of Sonora, Mexico.
Operation Jetway Operation
Jetway is an EPIC-supported domestic interdiction program. Drug seizures are
reported to Operation Jetway by federal, state, and local law enforcement
agencies across the nation at airports, train stations, bus stations, package
shipment facilities, U.S. Post Offices, and airport hotels and motels.
Traffickers smuggle illicit drugs by rail across the Arizona portion of the
U.S.-Mexico border; however, according to EPIC, the extent to which DTOs and
criminal groups use freight railcars for smuggling drugs is a significant
intelligence gap.
According to the Arizona High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), sophisticated hidden compartments
reportedly have been installed in freight railcars at railroad repair
facilities in Mexico, complicating the detection of illicit drugs at the two
rail interchanges located in the state at the Douglas and Nogales POEs. In 2002
a railroad car x-ray machine became operational at the Nogales POE to
facilitate freight railcar drug seizures. The U.S. Customs Service (USCS), now
the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Bureau of Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reports that the amount of marijuana seized from
freight railcars in Arizona is nominal but increasing. USCS inspectors seized
11 kilograms of marijuana from freight railcars in fiscal year (FY) 1998, 150
kilograms in FY1999, 231 kilograms in FY2000, and 364 kilograms in
FY2001.Traffickers often smuggle illicit drugs across the Arizona portion of
the U.S.-Mexico border using couriers on horseback or backpackers who travel
through remote areas between the POEs.
Drug traffickers extensively use
border areas such as the Tohono O'Odham Nation, Coronado National Forest, and
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument because the rugged terrain camouflages
smuggling activity. According to EPIC, 50 percent of all illicit drugs seized
within 150 miles of the Arizona portion of the U.S.-Mexico border in FY2002
were seized between the POEs.Traffickers also smuggle illicit drugs into the
state through tunnels that extend from Mexico into Arizona.
Law
enforcement officials discovered tunnels that originated in Mexico and
terminated in houses or businesses in Douglas, Naco, and Nogales. From
September 1995 through January 2003, 12 tunnels connecting Nogales, Arizona,
with Nogales, Sonora, Mexico were discovered.Mexican DTOs and criminal groups
are the dominant transporters of illicit drugs into Arizona. They also control
the wholesale, midlevel, and retail distribution of drugs in the state. These
DTOs and criminal groups use familial ties and extensive connections between
groups to transport and distribute significant quantities of methamphetamine,
cocaine, heroin, and marijuana throughout Arizona.According to the Treatment
Episode Data Set (TEDS), substance abuse treatment admissions to publicly
funded facilities in Arizona increased from 13,949 in 1998 to 14,127 in 2001,
then decreased to 11,239 in 2002.The number of drug-induced deaths in Arizona
has increased.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the number of
drug-induced deaths increased 73 percent from 334 in 2000 to 577 in 2001. The
rate of drug-induced deaths per 100,000 population in Arizona increased from
6.5 in 2000 to 11.2 in 2001.Survey data indicate that the rate of illicit drug
use in Arizona is comparable to the rate nationwide. According to combined data
from the 1999 and the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), 6.1
percent of Arizona residents surveyed reported having abused an illicit drug in
the month prior to the survey, compared to 6.3 percent nationwide.According to
data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC), the percentage of federal
sentences in Arizona that were drug-related decreased from 36.2 in FY1997 to
28.3 in FY2001. Drug trafficking accounted for approximately 95 percent and
drug possession for nearly 5 percent of drug-related sentences from FY1999
through FY2001, on average.
Drugs and Drug Rehab
Drug Situation: Arizona serves
primarily as a drug importation and transshipment state. Drug smuggling and
transportation are dominated by major Mexican trafficking organizations. These
groups are poly-drug organizations smuggling cocaine, marijuana,
methamphetamine, heroin, and precursor chemicals. The movement of drugs through
the state contributes to the rise in substance abuse and the number of
individuals entering drug rehab centers.
 Cocaine:
Historically, Arizona has been a transshipment area for cocaine that is
distributed (via passenger vehicles and tractor-trailers) to destinations
throughout the United States. Crack cocaine: Throughout the metropolitan areas
of Phoenix and Tucson, crack cocaine remains popular and easily attainable and
is a primary contributor to those seeking drug addiction treatment. It is
distributed in areas where street gangs control the market.
Other Drugs: Prescription controlled drugs
continue to be smuggled from Mexico into Arizona on a regular basis.
Hydrocodone, oxycodone, and benzodiazepene products continue to comprise the
majority of prescription controlled drugs abused in Arizona. Arizona has begun
to see organized groups utilizing computer-generated prescriptions to obtain
OxyContin for both personal abuse and distribution for profit. As prescription
drug abuse rises, so does the need for addiction treatment centers to handle
the increasing problem.
 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. There have been 359 deployments completed resulting
in over 14,456 arrests of violent drug criminals as of April 1, 2002. There
have been 12 METdeployments in Arizona since the inception of the program:
Eloy/Pinal, Bullhead City, Prescott, Lake Havasu City, Sierra Vista, Apache
County, Coconino County, Navajo County, Payson, Show Low, Glendale, and
Tombstone. These deployments resulted in 509 arrests and the seizure of 32.8
pounds of cocaine, 1.3 pounds of crack cocaine, 1,387 pounds of marijuana, .5
pounds of heroin, 500 units of LSD, 59.8 pounds of methamphetamine, and 13
clandestine methamphetamine labs. Also seized were 126 weapons, 60 vehicles,
and over $225,000 in U.S. currency and property.
Special Topics: This year the Phoenix Metro
Intelligence Strategic and Tactical Investigative Center (MISTIC), a
multi-agency enforcement and intelligence center opened in Phoenix. The Center
houses several agencies: DEA, Phoenix Police Department, FBI-JDIG (Federal
Bureau of Investigation – Joint Drug Intelligence Group), and Maricopa
County/DEA Clan Lab Group. The mission of the MISTIC Center is to apply
enhanced intelligence processes and greater operational coordination to
identify drug trafficking organizations (D.T.O.s). Phoenix Group #1, Southwest
Border Initiative (SWBI) is co-located with Phoenix Police Department’s
Drug Task Force at the MISTIC Center. They develop and pursue Title III
investigations targeting Mexican D.T.O.s.
Drug Addiction Treatment Needed:In conjunction with continued law enforcement efforts, more addiction
treatment centers are needed to combat the ever-growing socio-economic problem
of substance abuse and addiction. |