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Year of Designation: 1990 |
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Geographic Area of Responsibility: |
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California: |
The LA-HIDTA's designated geographic area in the State of California covers the four counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino.
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Contact: |
(213) 989-6457 / (213) 989-6460 |
Mission Statement:
It is the mission of the LA-HIDTA to measurably reduce drug trafficking; thereby reducing the impact of illicit drugs in this and other areas of the country. This mission is to be accomplished through the use of multi-jurisdictional (Federal, State, and local), collocated, and commingled law enforcement and intelligence initiatives designed to attack, disrupt, and dismantle major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations that are operating in and through the LA-HIDTA region.
Threat Abstract:
The Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area's (LA-HIDTA) designated geographic area covers the four counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino and is comprised of some 32,341 square miles including 213 miles of coastline with a general population of (+/-) 16 million.
The economically and culturally diverse population of the region exceeds that of 41 states. The territorial expanse of the LA- HIDTA extends from Santa Catalina Island, located in the Pacific Ocean approximately 25 miles offshore, in the West to the Arizona and Nevada borders in the East. The Southern region of the LA-HIDTA is some 90 miles off of the United States / Mexico border. All types of narcotics are manufactured, imported and distributed within the LA-HIDTA and beyond.
Los Angeles � Only Primary Market in Country for All Five Major Drugs � Los Angeles is the only primary drug market area in the country for all five major drugs: cocaine; methamphetamine; marijuana; heroin and MDMA. Traffickers use the highways to transport most of the illicit drugs into and across the country as well as to move vast sums of illicit proceeds across and out of the country. Of the 13 primary market areas nationwide, Los Angeles is the only area identified as a primary market for all major drugs of abuse. It is the nation's largest market for methamphetamine, the largest market in the West for heroin and a staging ground for Mexican drug trafficking organizations and some National street gangs . (source NDIC)
Sea Threat � The Port of Los Angeles / Long Beach is the 3rd busiest seaport in the world � Busiest in the United States � 9.3 million containers / 123 million tons of cargo annually � 213 miles of shoreline .
Air Threat � The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recognizes 3 international, 94 municipal, and 3 seaplane airports within the LA-HIDA region. The Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the 5th busiest passenger airport in the world. 61 million passengers annually / 2,300 flights a day � 2 nd busiest for cargo � 1.9 million metric tons annually.
Land Threat � The land threat from the South is perhaps the most obvious where large quantities of illegal drugs are brought North on the major highways of the region .
Indigenous � The indigenous harvesting of marijuana in the nearby mountains and the continuing numbers of major poly-drug manufacturing and distribution systems pose a significant threat to our region. Inside the metropolitan and rural areas, hundreds of clandestine (large and small scale) methamphetamine labs continue to proliferate.
Strategy Abstract:
The Executive Board presently has eighteen voting members representing a working partnership of the major Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies that operate in the LA-HIDTA region. The LA-HIDTA Executive Board and its three subcommittees continue to take a very active and positive role in determining the strategy, priorities and overall direction of the LA- HIDTA. As a result of their input and guidance, the on-going effort on the part of all initiatives continues to be enhanced through mutual cooperation and teamwork.
The goals of the LA-HIDTA specifically focus on the dismantling and /or disrupting of major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations that operate in and through the region with a primary focus on cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin. The LA-HIDTA was originally designated as one of the Nations �major narcotic gateways�, a distinction which is most evident and holds true to this day.
The following chart reflects the Major Drug Trafficking Organizations impacted by the LA-HIDTA enforcement initiatives, 2001 through 2003:
In F/Y 2004, this HIDTA consists of six major task forces comprised of collocated Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies, three intelligence projects, which comprise the Intelligence Support System (ISS) and five critical support initiatives each dedicated to the task of positively impacting the major drug trafficking problems that continue to face our geographic region and country.
Over the years, the above mentioned LA- HIDTA enforcement/intelligence initiatives have seized significant amounts of dangerous drugs as reflected in the following chart:
LA-HIDTA Strategy -- Design / Planning - The Strategy for the Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area is developed in close concert with all of our enforcement and intelligence initiatives. At all levels of this dynamic process, we take into account both law enforcement missions / resources and the overall narcotics trafficking and money laundering threat in our region.
To assist in the process of ensuring that the Strategy adequately addresses the threat, a rather unique system of "reverse planning" is utilized. This plan brings together our various LA-HIDTA law enforcement and intelligence initiatives for the dual purpose of validating the various Strategy elements and establishing individual priorities and achievement goals. By combining the individual projected goals, the objectives of the Strategy are identified, and agreed upon, to include both expected outputs and desired outcomes.
Investigative Support System (ISS):
Intelligence Architecture Plan -- This plan redefines the intelligence responsibilities and priorities within the LA-HIDTA, effectively �bringing together� our intelligence projects ( Los Angeles Joint Drug Intelligence Group; Los Angeles County Regional Criminal Information Clearinghouse; and Inland Narcotics Clearing House) into what today is called the Intelligence Support System (ISS). It brings a much needed working memorandum of understanding between our intelligence initiatives, enhanced lines of communication, and provides clear definitive lines of responsibility.
Additionally, the process brings an enhanced level of intelligence service to the LA- HIDTA law enforcement community. The intelligence initiatives of the LA-HIDTA work to provide the most recent institutional drug intelligence. Additionally they provide deconfliction, pointer index, case support, target profiles, intelligence fusion, and predictive analysis to the entire law enforcement community in our region.
Intelligence Driven Law Enforcement -- In C/Y 2003, the three LA-HIDTA Intelligence Initiatives recorded 1,626 combined requests for service (an increase of 59% over last year) from various law enforcement agencies within our region which resulted in 21,469 analytical products (increase of 46% compared to 2002).
War Room / Intelligence Watch Center -- The War Room provides "real time" operational and tactical intelligence support by tracking, around-the-clock, all Federal, State and local law enforcement �high risk� operations within the four county region known as the LA-HIDTA. On-site Intelligence Analysts are available to immediately research the various law enforcement intelligence data bases thus enabling officers to conduct enhanced narcotic investigations.
Critical Event Tracking � LA-HIDTA Region -- In C/Y 2003 the War Room tracked 20,292 Critical Events in the LA- HIDTA region, an increase of 5.0% over last year . This number included 1,120 deconflictions (6.0% - one out of every eighteen critical events) wherein various law enforcement �high risk� operations are notified when they are about to conflict with each other during the course of their investigation.
Providing Deconfliction Services for Other HIDTA Regions � Currently, the Los Angeles County Regional Criminal Information Clearinghouse (LACRCIC) is providing the deconfliction services for the Los Angeles, Northern California, Central Valley and Nevada HIDTA's. This notable capability, within the 4 HIDTA regions, means that the LACRCIC �War Room� is providing service to 384 Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies; 24 out of 58 counties in California (41.4%) and 1 county in Nevada. The combining of regional law enforcement resources such as this, in order to successfully address major drug trafficking issues, truly speaks to the very essence of the ONDCP National HIDTA Program.
Participating Agencies:
