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Drug Situation: The state of Georgia is both a
final destination point for drug shipments and a smuggling corridor for drugs
transported along the East Coast. Extensive interstate highway, rail, and bus
transportation networks, as well as international, regional, and private air
and marine ports of entry serve the state. Moreover, Georgia is strategically
located on the I-95 corridor between New York City and Miami, the key
wholesale-level drug distribution centers on the East Coast and major drug
importation hubs. In addition, Interstate Highways 10 and 20 run directly into
Georgia from drug entry points along the Southwest Border and Gulf Coast. Also,
the entire state, Atlanta in particular, has experienced phenomenal growth over
the last several years with a corresponding increase in drug crime and
violence. With Georgia bordering North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee,
Atlanta is the base for several major dealers who maintain trafficking cells in
these states; especially Mexican-based traffickers who hide within legitimate
Hispanic enclaves. Over the last decade, the population in the Division has
soared 20 percent. According to the Pew Hispanic Center and the Brookings
Institution, recent census figures show that Atlanta is number two in Latino
immigration. Researchers label this phenomenon 'hypergrowth' which describes
any city with at least a 300 percent increase in Latino population for the
period studied. Atlanta's Latino population grew 995 percent since 1980, or
268,851. Other cities in Georgia experiencing tremendous growth in the Hispanic
community include Dalton, Gainesville, Macon, Columbus, Savannah, and Augusta.
Most significantly, within the past two years, the Atlanta Field Division has
seen a change in the drug trafficking patterns in and around the Atlanta
metropolitan area. Atlanta has experienced a noted increase in significant drug
trafficking organizations moving into and/or setting up operations in the
Atlanta metropolitan area. Intelligence currently indicates that Atlanta has
become an important strategic point for drug trafficking organizations,
especially the Mexicans, as it is the largest city in the South and has a nexus
for all East/West and North/South travel. Cocaine seizures have increased
dramatically as a result of the Mexican organizations moving into Atlanta.
The Atlanta Field Division Office recently concluded a
three-year investigation that targeted the command and control structure of a
Mexican- based poly-drug organization. On September 17, 2002, 27 suspected
members of a major drug trafficking organization were indicted in the Northern
District of Georgia for distribution and for conspiracy to possess with intent
to distribute cocaine, marijuana, and/or methamphetamine. Arrest warrants were
issued for those individuals named in the indictment. In a major culmination of
the investigation, four Federal Search Warrants were executed in Cobb County
Georgia on September 19, 2002. The arrest warrants issued pursuant to the
indictments were executed as well. As a result of those warrants, 31 defendants
were arrested and two handguns, seven vehicles, and $413,914 in cash were
seized. DEA Atlanta conducted a series of enforcement activities throughout the
lengthy investigation. One investigation yielded a total of 64 arrests, the
seizures of 217 kilograms of cocaine, 40 pounds of methamphetamine, three
pounds of ice (a potent form of methamphetamine), cash totaling $3,813,914,
2500 pounds of marijuana, five residences, 18 vehicles and nine handguns.
Atlanta functioned as a primary distribution center for the contraband, which
was subsequently shipped to other cities in the Southeast and beyond, reaching
as far as Birmingham, Alabama, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois, and
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the most recent and final phase of the case,
the focus was upon a local cell head and his distribution network in the
Atlanta metropolitan area. The organization utilized tractor-trailers to
smuggle large quantities of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine across the
U.S./Mexico border. The primary source of supply for all of the drugs is an
organization operating from the Reynoso, Altamirano and Guerrero areas of
Mexico that based their distribution locations in metropolitan
Atlanta. |
