United States Drug Enforcement Administration

MIAMI – Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon today announced that the DEA will direct enforcement resources to methamphetamine “transportation hubs” — areas where methamphetamine is often trafficked in bulk and then distributed across the country. While continuing to focus on stopping drugs being smuggled across the border, DEA’s Operation Crystal Shield will ramp up enforcement to block their further distribution into America’s neighborhoods. 

DEA has identified eight major methamphetamine transportation hubs where these efforts will be concentrated: Atlanta, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Phoenix, and St. Louis. Together, these DEA Field Divisions accounted for more than 75 percent of methamphetamine seized in the U.S. in 2019. 

Operation Crystal Shield builds on existing DEA initiatives that target major drug trafficking networks, including the Mexican cartels that are responsible for the overwhelming majority of methamphetamine trafficked into and within the United States. From FY 2017 to FY 2019, DEA domestic seizures of methamphetamine increased 127 percent from 49,507 pounds to 112,146 pounds. During the same time frame, the number of DEA arrests related to methamphetamine rose nearly twenty percent.   

In Florida, there has been a 578 percent increase in methamphetamine seizures from 2018 to 2019. During that period, the DEA Miami Field Division has seized a total of approximately 310 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine. During 2017-2019, the overall prices of methamphetamine across Florida ranged from $5,900 to $20,000 per pound.

Miami Field Division intelligence revealed that Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO) import methamphetamine across the U.S.-Mexico border, then transport it though Texas, Mississippi and Georgia, then into Florida for distribution.  Additionally, Mexican DTOs frequently sought to exploit new smuggling routes by flying methamphetamine via private aircraft from Central America to the Bahamas, then into South Florida. Cuban distributors, who historically distributed cocaine and marijuana, are becoming increasingly involved in the distribution of crystal methamphetamine in Florida.

Drug traffickers and distributors also sell methamphetamine as counterfeit pills or frequently use methamphetamine as an adulterant; their customers may or may not know that. The emerging trend of methamphetamine in pill form also targets prescription stimulant users and appeals to non-traditional drug users due to the length of the high and the cheap price of methamphetamine. Many opioid addicts are reportedly transitioning to methamphetamine.

The most recent reporting from Florida’s medical examiners indicates that during 2018, total instances of methamphetamine present in the body at the time of death increased by 23 percent (198 additional individuals), and deaths caused by methamphetamine increased by 33 percent (155 additional individuals) when compared to 2017.

“For decades, methamphetamine has been a leading cause of violence and addiction – a drug threat that has never gone away,” said Acting Administrator Dhillon. “With a 22 percent increase in methamphetamine-related overdose deaths, now is the time to act, and DEA is leading the way with a surge of interdiction efforts and resources, targeting regional transportation hubs throughout the United States. By reducing the supply of meth, we reduce the violence, addiction, and death it spreads.” 

“The stark rise in methamphetamine distribution and use in Florida is putting communities in grave danger by jeopardizing the welfare of everyone,” said Miami Field Division Special Agent in Charge Kevin W. Carter.  “The Miami Field Division takes this initiative very seriously and remains strongly committed to working with our law enforcement partners, both nationally and internationally, to combat any such further increases and contamination of people’s health.”