U.S. Drug Trafficking Correction/Police --

¶ … U.S. Drug Trafficking

Correction/Police -- Criminal Justice

The objective of this research is to discuss current issues involving drug trafficking into the United States and to include current statistics as well as to research the country's major organizations brining drugs in the U.S. Finally this work will research the efforts of federal law enforcement agencies in combating the problem.

Recent breakthroughs have occurred in the world of drugs and those who combat their trafficking, transport and sale. New techniques of detection have emerged of recent as well as the apprehending of drug lords wanted for illegal activity in trafficking drugs.

Border patrol in South Texas are using a Sandia National Laboratories development to 'sniff' out drugs coming from south of the border into the U.S. The "prototype Hound system" is presently in use for drug detection at screening border checkpoints for narcotics and drug money. The system is made possible through U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice and its National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center. The sensitivity of the Hound system has the ability to detect and identify weapons and drugs in the residue of the fingerprints.

In a DEA News Release stated was that a "large-scale heroin and cocaine trafficking organization that was in the business of shipping multi-kilogram amount of Columbian heroin hidden in car batteries from Guatemala to Mexico and the U.S. has been put out of business according to DEA's administrator. According to the report, "law enforcement has truck traffickers on the run, forcing them to find new routes and smuggling methods. Stated also is that, "in the report is, "The culmination of Operation Jump Start was a highly orchestrated multi-jurisdictional, multi-national takedown resulting in 100 arrests thus far."

In a recent arrest reported it was stated that "Of particular note, Colombian national Humberto Palaez Escobar, a.k.a. "Beto," a key target in the organization's leadership, was captured today in Colombia. Manuel Linares-Sandoval, and Javier Reyes, both Guatemalans, and Alirio Munoz-Munoz, a Colombian, were arrested on provisional arrest warrants today in Guatemala." In an April 20, 2005 report The Drug Enforcement Administration arrested approximately 20 international pharmaceutical online traffickers that were in operation in the countries of the United States, India, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice there are now 1.5 million individuals in prison facilities in the U.S. For the following types of offenses:

Drug Offense

59.6%

Robbery

9.8%

Property Offenses

5.5%

Extortion, Fraud, Bribery

6.8%

Violent Offenses

2.7%

Firearms, Explosives, Arson

8.6%

White Collar

1.0%

Immigration

2.8%

Courts or Corrections

0.8%

National Security

0.1%

Continuing Criminal Enterprise

0.8%

Miscellaneous

1.5%

Source Bureau Justice Statistics online at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/

The following table labeled Table 1.0 shows the drug arrested for each year running from 1986 to 2002, the drug categories and the number of arrested in that category as the kilograms or dosage units of drugs seized during the arrest..

Table 1.0