Folks these DEA stats are an eye opener for me! I had no idea it was this bad in NC. These facts come from the DEA website. The Research Dept. of the Republican Action Club in Asheville, that is fighting against illegal immigration, came upon this mind boggling information. For us folks that live in NC, we need to let everyone know about this information. Send this out to every contact in our email list, our church, friends and family. And contact your elected representatives and hit them hard with this information. "Demand" that something be done on the state level in conjunction with federal agencies to put a halt to this chaos. On the local level, go to your city and county meetings and demand that action be taken coordinate with the state and feds to put a stop this mess. Local papers "will not" print this information. They are killing this country by their politically correct silence. WAKE THEM UP!!! I'M FURIOUS OVER THIS REPORT!!

DEA Offices & Telephone Nos.
Charlotte—704-770-2050
Greensboro—336-547-4210
Raleigh—919-790-3004
Wilmington—910-815-4513

State Facts
Population: 8,683,242
State Prison Population: 35,434
Probation Population: 111,537
Violent Crime Rate
National Ranking: 20 2005 Federal Drug Seizures
Cocaine: 677.0 kgs.
Heroin: 2.5 kgs.
Methamphetamine: 16.1 kgs./42,134 du
Marijuana: 887.3 kgs.
Hashish: 0.5 kgs
MDMA: 0.0 kgs/28,324 du
Meth Lab Incidents: 322 (DEA, state, and local)

Sources
Drug Situation: Over the past several years, North Carolina has experienced a significant increase in drug trafficking activity. The majority of the increased drug trafficking activity is due to the influx of Mexican nationals into the state. According to the most recent Census (2000), North Carolina is the 11 th most populated state and has the ninth fastest growing population in the nation. One of the factors fueling the population growth is the high rate of Hispanic migration to the state. North Carolina led the nation in Hispanic growth from 1990 to 2000, with a growth rate of 394%. The Hispanic growth rate was anchored by a 655% increase in the Mexican population. The Mexican population had traditionally been a migrant population that worked in the agriculture-based industries of North Carolina, but now is a permanent segment of the population, capitalizing on the many job opportunities available in the state. While the majority of immigrants are not involved in drug trafficking, their presence allows traffickers from Mexico to hide within the Mexican communities. The Mexican drug traffickers most commonly transport and distribute cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine.

Cocaine: North Carolina is a destination state for cocaine, as well as a staging and transshipment point to the more northern states along the Eastern Seaboard and in the mid-west, including Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Cocaine is readily available and major traffickers take advantage of the state's interstate highways, which are major transshipment routes for cocaine being transported from source areas to other states. These major source areas are California, Arizona and Texas, with major sources of supply being traffickers based in Mexico. Cocaine is usually shipped in private or rental vehicles. Cocaine loads transported into North Carolina by Mexican organizations are used to supply crack distribution networks that further present an enormous social threat to North Carolina's inner city communities.

Heroin: Heroin use and availability is extremely low in North Carolina. Many areas of the state, such as Greenville, Durham and Rocky Mount, report that heroin abuse has been limited to an increasingly smaller population of older abusers.

Methamphetamine: Methamphetamine cases have been on the rise in urbanized parts of North Carolina, such as Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and Asheville; however, rural communities in many counties of the western part of the state have experienced a surge in methamphetamine trafficking. Primary sources are located in West Coast states, principally California and Arizona, but a significant supply also comes from Mexican traffickers based in northern Georgia, e.g. Gainesville and Dalton. Mexican traffickers from these states have been identified as the clandestine manufacturers and sources of supply for methamphetamine in multi-pound quantities. In 2003, the Asheville Post of Duty targeted a large Gainesville-based Mexican methamphetamine trafficking group distributing over 40 pounds monthly to habitual users in western North Carolina. Smaller methamphetamine laboratories are a significant threat in the western portion of the state. Although on average they produce only gram to ounce quantities of methamphetamine, they were doubling in number over recent years until they stabilized by December 2005. They contribute to crime and social problems in rural counties, and create a considerable resource drain on state and local governments. DEA has joined in an aggressive campaign against meth lab “cooks.” DEA is also actively advising local retail stores about federal laws which govern the sale of listed items, such as psuedoephedrine, iodine, and anhydrous ammonia. The sale of any of these items to someone who is known to or suspected of manufacturing methamphetamine is subject to arrest.

Club Drugs: The Club Drugs that are most popular in North Carolina are MDMA, GHB and LSD. The use of Dangerous Drugs has increased in popularity across the state and is especially popular with college and high-school aged people. With more than 50 four-year colleges and universities in North Carolina, there is a large potential market for club drugs. Ecstasy (MDMA) is also a problem, although not posing near the equivalent threat to most North Carolina communities as does cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. Domestic intelligence gleaned from local and state agencies in North Carolina indicate that Ecstasy use is on the rise, arriving from trafficking networks in New York, Florida and California. Most prominently distributed in larger cities and along the coastal communities, such as beach cities attracting tourist populations, authorities are targeting ecstasy distributors and their out-of-state sources of supply. The Charlotte DO is targeting the rise of local Asian gangs trafficking MDMA and conducting money laundering for other trafficking groups. The majority of users of the drug are in the 15 to 25 year old category caught up in the "Rave" subculture. Law enforcement agencies have identified individuals with ties to the Pacific Northwest or West Coast regions of the country distributing bulk quantities of LSD.

Marijuana: Marijuana is one of the most prevalent drugs in North Carolina and its availability is increasing. One cause is the recent rise in the availability of Mexican marijuana due to an influx of Mexican trafficking organizations executing smuggling operations into the state directly from Mexico via containerized cargo transported on tractor-trailer trucks, particularly in the central portion (Piedmont) of the state. In addition, marijuana is being smuggled in ever-larger amounts via campers, pickup trucks, and larger vehicles. Over the past five years, Domestic Cannabis Eradication Suppression Program authorities had seized domestically-grown marijuana in increasing quantities; specifically, in 2000 a total of 40,464 marijuana plants were seized, by 2001 the figure rose to 89,900 plants, and in 2002 there were 112,017 plants. There were no figures available for 2003 and in 2004, only 35,965 marijuana plants were seized. In 2005 there were 60,701 plants seized. The fluctuation of plants seized was impacted by the number of National Guard assets available due to multiple deployments from 2003 to the present.

Other Drugs: Regarding illegal pharmaceuticals, while not a prominent class of drugs for abuse like cocaine or marijuana, the illegal distribution and abuse of prescription narcotics is widespread and increasing throughout North Carolina. Abusers tend to “doctor shop” for pain medication, or as in one case, learn of a clinic or pharmacy freely distributing narcotics on demand without a prescription. Such is the case of Medi-fare Pharmacy and the adjoining Grover Medical Clinic in Grover, NC. Before being shut down, Medi-fare was the number one dispenser of methadone in the country and the number four dispenser of OxyContin. Together, Medi-fare and the Grover Medical Clinic supplied abusers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Michigan and Virginia with tens of thousands of dosage units monthly.

Pharmaceutical Diversion: Current investigations indicate that diversion of OxyContin® and hydrocodone products continues to be a problem in North Carolina. Primary methods of diversion being reported are illegal sale and distribution by health care professionals and workers, “doctor shopping” (going to a number of doctors to obtain prescriptions for a controlled pharmaceutical), forged prescriptions, employee theft, and the Internet. Benzodiazepines were also identified as being among the most commonly abused and diverted pharmaceuticals in North Carolina.

DEA Mobile Enforcement Teams: This cooperative program with state and local law enforcement counterparts was conceived in 1995 in response to the overwhelming problem of drug-related violent crime in towns and cities across the nation. Since the inception of the MET Program, 473 deployments have been completed nationwide, resulting in 19,643 arrests. There have been six MET deployments in the State of North Carolina since the inception of the program: Monroe, Kinston, Durham, Lumberton, Rocky Mount, and Durham.

DEA Regional Enforcement Teams: This program was designed to augment existing DEA division resources by targeting drug organizations operating in the United States where there is a lack of sufficient local drug law enforcement. This Program was conceived in 1999 in response to the threat posed by drug trafficking organizations that have established networks of cells to conduct drug trafficking operations in smaller, non-traditional trafficking locations in the United States. As of January 31, 2005, there have been 27 deployments nationwide, and one deployment in the U.S. Virgin Islands, resulting in 671 arrests. There have been two RET deployments in the State of North Carolina since the inception of the program: Asheville and Charlotte.

OCDETF means...Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force
Other Enforcement Operations: The OCDETF programs in the Eastern, Middle, and Western Federal Judicial Districts of North Carolina are very strong. The Western District ranks number one in prosecutions in the Southeast OCDETF Region.
So there must be a large amount of Organized crime going on.

More information about the Atlanta Division Office.

Sources

Factsheet last updated: 6/2006
http://www.dea.gov/pubs/states/northcarolina.html