Highlights of the 2014 Report
- Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations are suspected of trafficking 70 percent of the U.S. supply of methamphetamine through the San Diego port of entry alone, making California the primary source for methamphetamine nationwide. In 2013, border authorities seized over 6,200 kilograms of methamphetamine entering California, a three-fold increase since 2009.
- The Sinaloa Federation cartel has emerged from the fragmented Mexican drug market as the dominant Mexico-based drug trafficking organization operating in California. Sinaloa is now responsible for trafficking the vast majority of Mexico-produced marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine through the Tijuana corridor into California.
- The public safety threat posed by Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations has been amplified as cartels have formed alliances with California prison and streetgangs to control trafficking routes, distribute drugs, and kidnap, extort, and kill as necessary to protect their criminal activities. The Mexican Mafia, for example, provides protection for members of numerous cartels both inside and outside prison, and various Hispanic Sureño and Norteño gangs in Southern and Northern California have teamed up with Sinaloa, La Familia Michoacana, The Knights Templar, and other Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations.
- With gang membership up 40 percent between 2009 and 2011, California has seen higher levels of violent crime (particularly assault, extortion, home invasion robberies, homicide, intimidation, and shootings), as well as an increase in arrests for human trafficking offenses and significant seizures of drugs, weapons, and cash.
- Transnational criminal organizations are taking advantage of new communications technologies and social media to facilitate criminal activity, recruit new members, and intimidate or harass their rivals – even from inside prison walls. In 2011, for example, over 15,000 cell phones were seized from inmates in California prisons.
- Recent increases in the use of panga boats to smuggle drugs and people into California exemplify the constant tactical adaptation by transnational criminal organizations. Boats capable of carrying 12 tons of marijuana have landed as far north as Santa Cruz County, with a steady increase in panga sightings and landings throughout the Central Coast.
- Between 2009 and 2012, the number of intentional breaches of computer networks and databases in the U.S. jumped by 280 percent, with California’s share leading the nation. Many of these breaches have been tied to transnational criminal organizations operating from Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Israel, Egypt, China, and Nigeria, among other places.
- In the 2012-2013 fiscal year, California state drug task forces disrupted or dismantled 140 drug, money-laundering and gang organizations, arrested nearly 3,000 individuals, rescued 41 drug-endangered children, confiscated 1,000 weapons, and seized nearly $28.5 million in U.S. currency in anti-narcotic law enforcement actions statewide. Federally-sponsored High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (“HIDTA”) program task forces also identified 305 drug-related transnational criminal organizations operating in California, and 18 street and prison gangs with ties to these organizations.
- At the same time, state-led task forces charged with protecting California from transnational criminal organizations have suffered severe budget reductions over the last five years, with the number of operating task forces dropping from 55 in 2011 to just 17 in 2013.
Link to the detailed report: click here
Link to the press release : click here