ISP CRISCROS (2)

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GMS 2009-F5338-IL-SS

Attachment 2 – Program NarrativeIntroduction

The U.S. Southwest Border (SWB) has, and continues to present many challenges to lawenforcement nationwide, especially as it pertains to smuggling drugs, illegal aliens and othercontraband capable of inflicting serious harm and devastation on the American people andeconomy. This proposal is designed to give law enforcement some of the tools necessary tomitigate the threats generated by methods and technologies employed by drug traffickingorganizations (DTOs) and other criminal groups to thwart current law enforcement efforts andcapabilities.The innovative approach documented in this proposal exploits cutting edge technology tosignificantly enhance and strengthen already-effective policing techniques, incorporates multi- jurisdictional collaboration and information sharing, introduces intelligence-led, strategy-drivenpolicing approaches and establishes a capacity to more persuasively develop interagencycooperation and coordination. This approach will more effectively address narcotics-relatedcriminal activity along critical corridors between the SWB and the Chicago High Intensity DrugTrafficking Area (HIDTA) region, a major destination and transshipment point for the illicitdrugs emanating from the SWB. This application is being submitted under category III of theRecovery Act:

State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program: Combating Criminal Narcotics Activity Stemming from the Southern Border of the United States.

CDFA #16.809

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Statement of the Problem

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) National Drug Threat Survey(NDTS)

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, large quantities of the Chicago region’s principal drugs for distribution and abuse(cocaine, heroin and marijuana), are transported to the area by Mexican DTOs and criminalgroups primarily from locations along the SWB. Columbian DTOs distributing cocaine andheroin to Chicago often partner with Mexican DTOs to facilitate shipment of those drugs fromthe SWB to the Chicago area.

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Chicago’s robust transportation hubs and highly developed financial infrastructure arefacilitating continuous movement of illicit drugs and drug proceeds by DTOs. The Chicagoregion’s ethnically diverse population, many with close, source-country connections to MexicanDTOs also contributes to its status as a national-level distribution center serving the Midwest andthe Eastern United States. These facts lead to Illinois often being referred to as a “non-traditional border state”. Mexican DTOs typically transport the drugs from the SWB to theChicago area in private and commercial vehicles, often secreted in elaborate hiddencompartments and/or combined with licit freight. Drugs are frequently stored in stash houses fordistribution both in the region and in other areas in the Midwest and Eastern United States.Accordingly, drug proceeds are collected in count houses in the Chicago region and eitherlaundered or bulk-shipped back to Mexico via the identified transportation corridors to the SWB.

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National

Drug

Intelligence

Center,

U.S.

Department

of

Justice,

Drug

Market

Analysis

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2008

Chicago

High

Intensity

Drug

Trafficking

Area

,

(April

2008)

p3.

2

National

Drug

Intelligence

Center,

U.S.

Department

of

Justice

p5.

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Through years of intelligence collection, enforcement and interdiction efforts, law enforcementofficers have determined key transportation corridors over which DTOs transport large quantitiesof drugs from the SWB to the Chicago area. Bulk cash, weapons and other contraband collectedin the Chicago area are often transported back to the SWB using the same vehicles over the samecorridors. Each year, vehicles used by the DTOs facilitate the movement of many tons of drugsand hundreds of millions of dollars and other contraband to/from the SWB.In 2008, Chicago HIDTA enforcement initiatives seized in excess of $36 Million in cash andassets; factoring in the street value of the drugs seized, total seizures for the HIDTA in 2008amounted to over $155 Million. Significant seizure activity in areas between the SWB andChicago HIDTA have been identified on highway corridors shown on map in Attachment 6.

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Program Design and Implementation

This proposal recommends that a distinctive partnership among six HIDTAs (Chicago, N Texas,Gulf Coast, Southwest Border, Rocky Mountain, and Midwest HIDTAs) and respective HIDTA-participating agencies be established. Such a partnership, facilitated through the tenets of theHIDTA Program, will strengthen and expand information sharing and strategic, intelligence-ledpolicing by agencies and programs participating in this project. The salient features of theproject are the six HIDTAs and law enforcement agencies that comprise them and the five well-established, identified highway corridors in 13 states commonly used by DTOs to ship drugs anddrug proceeds (I-80, I-10, I-25, I-35, and I-55) along the 1200 miles between the SWB and the

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OnlineAtlas

U.S.

March

30,

2009

http://www.onlineatlas.us/interstate

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highways.htm

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corridor

data