Humboldt: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area? Who’d of Thunk It

Spider waiting on its web to catch wayward insects in a marijuana garden.

“Good news,” tweeted Jared Huffman the North Coast’s Congressman this morning, “Humboldt County just named High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). This =more federal $ 2 fight illegal trespass pot grows.” (Translation of last part for non tweeters: “This equals more federal money to fight illegal trespass pot grows.”)

Is this good news? 

That fact that Humboldt is actually an area with a lot of marijuana grows and marijuana sales as well as a significant meth problem will surprise almost no one but is this the right solution for our situation?

According to the White House, HIDTA (pronounced hide-tuh) exists to help local, federal, state and even tribal law enforcement work better together and  “reduce the supply of illegal drugs in designated areas of the United States… .” The website explains, “The program’s 57 Intelligence and Investigative Support Centers help HIDTAs identify new targets and trends, develop threat assessments, deconflict targets and events, and manage cases.”

So, this is kind of special, right? This is saved for extreme measures? 

No, not really. Actually, 60 percent of the U.S. population is in a HIDTA. Sixteen percent of all counties in the United States are given this designation.

In fact, Mendocino County was designated a HIDTA in 2011. Humboldt will join it under the umbrella of the Northern California HIDTA (NCHIDTA).

What exactly is the focus of this more local organization?

According to the 2011 NCHIDTA Drug Market Analysis, (LoCO recommends this–clearly written and lots of interesting statistics,)

Key issues identified in the Northern California HIDTA region include the following:

• Mexican DTOs maintain unrivaled dominance over wholesale drug distribution in the Northern California HIDTA region. Their deeply entrenched, well-organized, and extensive networks enable them to supply illicit drug markets in the region and throughout much of the country.
• Widespread methamphetamine trafficking and abuse, particularly of ice methamphetamine, re- mains a problem so pervasive that methamphetamine continues to pose the greatest drug threat to the region.
• Methamphetamine production continues at high levels in the region—largely facilitated by well-organized pseudoephedrine smurfing rings and a growing number of methamphetamine conversion laboratories.
• Outdoor cannabis cultivation continues at high levels in the region at grow sites principally operated by Mexican DTOs. The propensity of these DTOs for violence while protecting their grow sites poses a significant threat to public safety and law enforcement personnel.
• High-potency marijuana continues to be produced at illicit indoor grow sites in the region by various DTOs, criminal groups, and independent dealers exploiting California’s state medical marijuana laws.

In order to understand how being designated HIDTA will affect Humboldt, LoCO contacted Mendocino Sheriff (and Humboldt County native) Tom Allman.

Allman said that the purpose of HIDTA is to coordinate major investigations not to raid smaller marijuana grows. He stated, “HIDTA is not for the regular type of commercial grows in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties.  If someone has 150 monster plants,…that is not what HIDTA is for.”  It is for a coordinated overview of large criminal organizations.

“Let’s say,” he explained, “we have a genuine cartel. We would be able to use HIDTA for coordination especially if it dealt with another region. It helps us communicate with outside law enforcement.”

“HIDTA was one of our biggest partners during [Operation] Full Court Press,” Allman pointed out. “It is  a great example of the good [HIDTA can do.]”

As to increased money, Allman said the amount, around $50,000 his office receives, isn’t “going to make or break my budget…it helps pay for overtime.”

He said the new status “should open up some new funding opportunities [and] bring new resources to the table… .” The real benefit he says is a “deeper partnership between local and federal agencies.” He does state that HIDTA has a specific amount of equipment available to be shared. Though he won’t go into details on what that consists of.

“Many times,” Allman stated, “probably more often than not, organized crime is several steps ahead of law enforcement. HIDTA helps us catch up.” 

Allman address worries that federal agencies will have more control in our local areas by insisting that “Your sheriff is the controlling officer in how the organization works…The trust your county has in Mike Downey is huge. He is not handing over the keys to somebody and saying here take over.”

“MA and Pa Kettle that are growing weed is not the purpose of HIDTA,” Allman reiterates firmly. 

So, Humboldt?  Good news or not?