National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) Releases the Indian Country Drug Threat Assessment 2008

    JOHNSTOWN, Pa., July 16 /EMWNews/ -- The National Drug

Intelligence Center (NDIC), a component of the United States Department of

Justice and the nation's principal center for domestic strategic counter

drug analysis, announced the publication of the Indian Country Drug Threat

Assessment 2008. The report is a comprehensive, strategic assessment of the

threat posed to Native American communities by drug trafficking

organizations, criminal groups, and gangs and the illicit drugs they

distribute on reservations throughout the United States. The report

examines the operations, capabilities, and vulnerabilities of drug

traffickers who exploit Indian Country and the difficulties faced by

federal, state, and tribal law enforcement officials in combating drug

trafficking in Native American communities.



    NDIC prepared the assessment at the request of the Law Enforcement Task

Force of the Indian Affairs Executive Working Group of the White House

Domestic Policy Council. The report provides policymakers; federal, state,

and tribal law enforcement officials; and resource planners with strategic

intelligence regarding drug trafficking and abuse in Indian Country.



    Key Findings of the report are:



    -- The illicit drug threat to Indian Country varies geographically

across Native American communities. Overall, marijuana is the most widely

available illicit drug on reservations. Ice methamphetamine, powder and

crack cocaine, diverted pharmaceuticals, heroin, and MDMA also are

available and abused at various levels on reservations throughout the

United States.



    -- Most illicit drugs available throughout Indian Country are

transported to reservations by Native American criminal groups and

independent dealers who travel to nearby cities to purchase illicit drugs,

primarily from Mexican DTOs and criminal groups, for distribution in their

home communities.



    -- Mexican DTOs are the principal wholesale suppliers and producers of

illicit drugs available to reservations throughout Indian Country and pose

the greatest organizational threat to Native American communities across

the United States. Mexican DTOs typically supply Native American

traffickers with illicit drugs for distribution on their reservations.

Mexican DTOs also smuggle significant quantities of marijuana, cocaine,

methamphetamine, and heroin from Mexico into the United States through

reservations that border Mexico.



    -- Canada-based Asian DTOs also pose an organizational threat to Indian

Country, particularly to reservations near the U.S.-Canada border. These

traffickers smuggle high-potency Canadian marijuana and MDMA through

northern reservations along or near the U.S.-Canada border.



    -- Native American DTOs and criminal groups are the principal

retail-level distributors of illicit drugs on reservations. African

American and Caucasian criminal groups and independent dealers also engage

in varying levels of drug distribution throughout Indian Country.



    -- National and local street gangs are increasingly distributing

retail-level quantities of illicit drugs on reservations; they also are

committing a host of gang-related criminal activities in Native American

communities to facilitate their distribution operations, including

intimidation, assault, and burglary.



    -- Drug production in Indian Country is limited; however, Mexican DTOs

are suspected of producing significant quantities of marijuana from

cannabis cultivated at outdoor grow sites in remote locations on many

reservations, particularly those in the Pacific Region. Additionally,

African American criminal groups convert powder cocaine to crack cocaine on

some reservations.



    -- Native American substance abuse levels are higher than those for any

other demographic group. American Indians and Alaska Natives are more

likely than any other racial group to report past year drug abuse,

according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).



    -- The diversion of pharmaceutical drugs is an increasing concern of

law enforcement on some reservations in Indian Country.



    -- The widespread availability and abuse of illicit drugs coupled with

the formidable smuggling, transportation, and distribution operations of

multiple criminal groups and gangs operating in Indian Country contribute

to a wide range of violent and property crime. Drug traffickers generally

engage in violent and property crimes to facilitate their drug trafficking

operations. Native American abusers typically commit property crimes to

support their addiction.



    The report focuses on Native American reservations in the contiguous 48

states of the United States. In order to assess the current drug situation

in Indian Country, NDIC intelligence analysts visited 80 reservations

throughout the country. In addition, NDIC conducted interviews with

federal, state, and tribal law enforcement officials and analyzed federal,

state, and tribal law enforcement reporting; intelligence community

reporting; open-source reporting; and data provided by numerous agencies,

including the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Drug Enforcement

Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Safe Trails

Task Forces (STTFs), and Indian Health Service (IHS).



    A copy of the assessment Indian Country Drug Threat Assessment 2008 can

be found at: http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs28/29239/index.htm