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Georgia Drug Alcohol Addiction Recovery and Treatment Programs and Centers
Georgia is a final destination point for drug shipments and a trafficking corridor for drugs shipped along the East Coast. Extensive interstate highway, rail, and bus transportation networks, and international, regional, and private air and marine Ports of Entry serve Georgia. Georgia is located on the I-95 corridor between New York City and Miami—the core wholesale-level drug distribution centers on the East Coast, I-85 towards North and South Carolina and other main drug importation centers. Further, Interstate Highway 20 runs straight into Georgia from drug entry points along the southwest border and the Gulf Coast.
Atlanta, Georgia is a critical strategic point for drug-trafficking organizations because it is the biggest city in the South and is a connector for all East/West and North/South travel. The Mexico/American Southwest Border area remains the primary source and staging point for cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin brought into Georgia.
Georgia has 9.3 million legal residents, with half residing in the Atlanta Metro area and Hispanics accounting for over 5 percent of the population. The rise in the Hispanic population has also resulted in an abundance of undocumented immigrants, particularly from Mexico. According to intelligence, the Mexican immigrant community has increased and so has the presence of Mexican smugglers. Due to this growth, Mexican poly-drug organizations are the greatest foreign threat in Georgia, mostly smuggling in cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin. Mexican traffickers have the ability to supply kilogram quantities of cocaine hydrochloride (powder cocaine) straight to local crack dealers.
DEA intelligence are still identifying smuggling routes, concealment techniques, and money-laundering operations employed by other foreign drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), such as Southeast Asian, West African, South American, and the Caribbean. Asian DTOs are now regarded as the second most visible group of international traffickers wielding influence in the state of Georgia.
Mexican traffickers and Mexican DTOs are still playing an increasingly major role in the importation and distribution of illicit drugs within the state of Georgia. Mexican poly-drug organizations are the biggest foreign threat in Georgia, mainly smuggling in cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin. In Georgia, marijuana is the most frequently abused drug and it is easily accessible. Mexico and the Southwest Border are the typical sources of marijuana imported and sold in Georgia. The main wholesale marijuana suppliers are Mexican natives. Further, outdoor cannabis harvest sites are growing. The U.S. Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service cite large marijuana grow sites in Georgia, with a recent apprehension amounting to several thousand marijuana plants found in outdoor sites in Eastern Georgia.
Due to the DEA's Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program and the recent drought in southeastern America, some dealers have resorted to hydroponic harvesting of marijuana. Hydroponic marijuana distribution generally involves Asian-Canadian DTOs, but because of growing consumer demand, another ethnic group is becoming involved as well; specifically, a recent investigation targeted a Cuban trafficking organization. The value of hydroponic marijuana seized from this group was more than $25,000,000 American dollars.
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