Eagle Ford Shale Oil and Gas Boom increases Drug Trafficking
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
While University of Texas at San Antonio researchers estimate that the Eagle Ford Shale Oil and Gas boom has generated a $61 Billion total economic impact and supported 116,000 jobs in 20 South Texas counties, a severe consequence of the economic progress and riches affecting South Texas communities within the Eagle Ford Shale play is increased drug trafficking and use, overwhelming local, state, and federal law enforcement authorities.
Since 2008, the Eagle Ford Shale region has seen a significant increase in drug trafficking and use by local and out of town residents. Over 50,000 new residents have relocated to South Texas hoping to cash in on the lucrative oil and gas jobs created by the Eagle Ford Shale boom. With increased salaries and income availability, drug traffickers and local street dealers have found new customers and trade routes to expand their business. The Eagle Ford Shale boom has brought an increase in methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana drug trafficking and use within the 20 South Texas counties within the Eagle Ford Shale region.
Maverick, Dimmit, Zavala, Kinney, Val Verde, La Salle, Frio, Webb, Karnes, and other counties are no exception to the increased drug trafficking and use during the past five years since the Eagle Ford Shale’s boom in 2008.
On June 25, 2014, the Eagle Pass Police Department detained over 2,000 pounds (over 1 ton) of marijuana being stored at an apartment being used as a stash house after receiving a tip from another law enforcement agency, marking the largest seizure of marijuana by the Eagle Pass Police Department in its history.
The Eagle Pass City Council approved a joint agreement between the United States Drug and Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Eagle Pass Police Department regarding the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Program (HIDTA) on July 1, 2014, providing the local police department with a $326,469 grant to increase personnel and equipment to combat drug trafficking.
Maverick County Sheriff’s Department has also been participating in the federal program designated as Operation Stonegarden for the past five or more years, receiving significant federal funding to increase personnel and equipment to address the growing drug trafficking and use issues in the community. In an out of town newspaper interview, Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber stated that his department has arrested Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas drivers transporting drugs through Maverick County and that “Drugs are a No. 1 priority for us, but we don’t have a lot of resources. The county is always low on funds, and we’re always low on deputies.”
Dimmit County in Carrizo Springs and Big Wells, Texas has experienced a skyrocketing increase in drug trafficking during the past five years, particularly in methamphetamine, reports Dimmit County Sheriff Marion Boyd. Prior to his election as Dimmit County Sheriff, Boyd conducted an undercover investigation with federal law enforcement agencies which resulted in the arrests and conviction of 22 persons in Dimmit County for methamphetamine and cocaine drug trafficking in federal court in Del Rio, Texas. Recently, another federal indictment in Del Rio has resulted in over 28 persons from Dimmit and surrounding counties being arrested for drug trafficking in methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana.
Sheriff Boyd noted the significant drug trafficking in Dimmit County and other Eagle Ford Shale region since 2008, stating that “Drug traffickers are beating the crap out of us.”
La Salle County in Cotulla, Texas similarly has seen an increase of drug arrests. In 2008, La Salle County arrested 24 persons for drug charges while in 2013 it arrested 73 persons for drug charges.
Drug traffickers have learned new methods to disguise their illegal loads to blend-in with the Eagle Ford Shale environment, vehicles, roads, and personnel. A recent arrest in Dimmit County detained over 1,400 pounds inside an oil and gas tanker trailer while in other counties similar arrests have found drugs in water trucks, dirt or sand trucks, oil and gas companies’ trucks, oil and gas companies’ vehicles with logos, and oil and gas pipeline trucks. The opening of many new oil and gas roads within ranches have made it easier for drug traffickers to exploit and use these rural ranch roads to transport their illegal loads onto state and federal highways to their ultimate destinations such as Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, St. Louis, Memphis, Detroit, Cleveland, and other cities.
One federal law enforcement officer stated that the increased drug trafficking within the Eagle Ford Shale region is a national problem because American citizens are consuming more drugs than ever and creating the demand for these illegal drugs. Federal agencies estimate that drug trafficking is a $46 Billion a year business in the United States, fueling demand for illegal drugs.
Criminal organizations are recruiting oil and gas employees and juveniles and high school-age students to transport the illegal drugs through the Eagle Ford Shale region.
Many call the increased drug trafficking and use in the Eagle Ford Shale region a byproduct of what follows the oil and gas industry around. Law enforcement officials throughout the region have acknowledged that heavier drugs are steadily making their way into these small rural communities and that drug arrests are also on the rise in their counties.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Fiscal Year 2012 Statistical Report provides a total of 671,886 cases under TDJC supervision. TDCJ reports that there was a total of 25,466 drug offense arrests in the state of Texas in 2012. Of these drug arrests, a total of 21,736 persons are incarcerated serving prison time for their drug offenses.
A former federal law enforcement officer stated that only 10% of all the drugs being used or transported through the Eagle Ford Shale region are being detained while the rest of the drugs are passing through the porous rural roads, communities, and people of South Texas and the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Border Patrol combined seized, 233,000 pounds of cocaine on the U.S.-Mexico Border from 2005 to 2011. They also seized over 8,800 pounds of Heroin from 2005 to 2011. Marijuana seizures from 2005 to 2011 netted 16.9 million pounds of marijuana. They also seized 36,700 pounds of methamphetamine from 2005 to 2011 at checkpoints and stations near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The influx of increased monies to Eagle Ford Shale employees and communities has spurred an unintended effect of increased drug trafficking and use within the 20 South Texas counties, compounding the existing U.S.-Mexico drug trafficking problems facing these communities and placing a severe strain on local law enforcement agencies abilities to combat these social ills and protect its citizens.
