CHARLOTTE EMERGES AS HUB FOR POTENT HEROIN

Mexican traffickers control market. Arrests, abuse are up. Mexican
drug traffickers have turned Charlotte into a key distribution point
for "black tar" heroin in North Carolina.

Heroin-related arrests here have jumped. And while officials have not
seen an increase in drug-related violence, they worry that could
change. Thousands have died in Mexico as drug cartels fight for
lucrative smuggling routes into the United States - and the violence
is starting to spill across the border. Other U.S. cities where
cartels have toeholds have seen a rash of murders and
kidnappings.

The U.S. Department of Justice's 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment
identified Charlotte as one of 230 cities where Mexican traffickers
"maintain drug distribution networks" to sell cocaine, marijuana,
methamphetamines and heroin.

John Emerson, assistant special agent in charge for the N.C. bureau of
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said Mexican drug
organizations have taken over most of the Charlotte heroin market
while Colombian heroin feeds addicts in Raleigh-Durham.

Emerson would not disclose how many Mexican cells operate in
Charlotte, but said there are "multiple." One was run out of a small
house on quiet Mary Jo Helms Drive in northeast Charlotte until it was
busted last year.

Israel Hernandez, 21, ran a nearly million-dollar business from the
family neighborhood, preparing black tar and dispatching couriers to
deliver it to suburban customers waiting outside public places like
Office Depot and Walgreens on South Boulevard.

"This activity took place seven days a week and ranged from 8 a.m. to
8 p.m.," James Long, of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police vice and
narcotics unit, said in an affidavit.

At least three cells have been shut down in the past two years. In
September 2007, authorities arrested seven men and seized $114,000 and
24,000 doses of heroin hidden in the garage of a southwest Charlotte
house less than two miles from Steele Creeke Elementary.

In another investigation, dubbed "Operation Black Gold Rush," federal
and local authorities busted Jairo Nunez, 27, for leading 13 people in
a Charlotte black tar ring. The same organization was also active in
South Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, California, Ohio and Arizona. The
cartels don't discriminate among customers. They sell their drugs to
low-income users and uptown bankers, police and treatment officials
say. And they're increasingly selling to young people.

"A lot of what we deal with is teens in high schools," said Capt. Mike
Adams of the CMPD's vice and narcotics unit. "We're talking south
Charlotte. I say south, I mean anywhere from uptown to the county and
state line." Statewide, heroin seizures increased 77 percent last
year, according to the DEA. Since 2005, heroin seizures in Charlotte
have risen 233 percent - from 214 grams to 714. A little under a 10th
of a gram is considered a single dose. Heroin abuse is also surging.
On average, last year, the McLeod Addictive Disease Center in
Charlotte had seven to eight new people a day visiting the Charlotte
clinic seeking methadone treatment. Ronnie Bradley, the center's
program manager, said they now get 15 to 20.

"The past two, three months, especially - it's been crazy." Bradley
said. "Yesterday, our doctor in Gastonia saw 17 methadone clients."
$12.50 a dose Treatment centers, as well as local and federal
officials, are increasingly concerned about the growing availability
of black tar. Made from poppies in western Mexico, the drug gets its
name from its color and texture. One officer described it as being
like "a warm tootsie roll." Black tar is easy to find in Charlotte, a
recovering addict says. And at $12.50 a dose, it's about half the
price of other available forms. The recovering addict said he injected
the drug. But it may be smoked or snorted. The man, who did not want
to be identified, said he got a phone number of a "Latino gang" in
2006 from an addict at a treatment clinic. When he called, the dealer
asked for his name and type of car.

Some of their first meetings were at the Park Road Shopping Center in
south Charlotte. "They spoke broken English," he said. "I couldn't
understand they were saying Harris Teeter." They switched to Cotswold,
which was more convenient for a daily meeting. He showed a reporter
where and how the exchange was made: He would call his source from a
Texaco at Randolph and Sharon Amity roads. "I always used a pay
phone," he said.

He was told to wait five minutes, which he did at the Jack in the Box
across the street. He parked backwards so he could see the dealer
approach. The dealer would drive by the restaurant - barely making eye
contact. The addict followed him onto Sharon Amity. They took the
first right. On Hardwicke Road, in the middle of the afternoon and in
front of homes of up to $500,000, the dealer would pull ahead and do a
U-turn. Then, as the two cars passed, the dealer pulled two balloons
filled with black tar from his mouth and held them out his window. The
addict held out $25. "We stopped only for a moment - enough to make
the exchange," he said. "You didn't get change." Immigrant ties
Hernandez, who ran the northeast Charlotte cell, faces up to 10 years
in prison for pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute controlled
substances.

Chris Fialko, Hernandez's attorney, said his client "has accepted
responsibility for his role in this conspiracy and may be serving a
significant amount of time in prison." Federal drug-enforcement
officials said the increase in drug trafficking is a direct
correlation with immigration.

Charlotte has one of the country's fastest growing immigrant
populations. An estimated 390,000 illegal immigrants live in North
Carolina, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Hernandez and associates Juan Manuel Algarin, 27, and Aurelio Cota,
31, were all found to be in the country illegally.

While most immigrants are not involved in drug trafficking, federal
authorities say the growing Latino community allows traffickers to
blend into the community and conceal their activities.

Maudia Melendez, head of Jesus Ministry, a group that advocates for
immigrants, said it's unfair to attribute drug problems to
immigration. "Drugs have been a problem in the United States for
years," she said. "We're talking about hundreds of thousands of
immigrants. The ones who are smuggling the drugs are maybe half of one
percent.. Most people probably don't even know about the drugs." 'It's
a business' Charlotte has seen nothing like the violence that engulfs
much of northern Mexico - more than 7,000 have died since January
2008. But law enforcement officials here say they're working to
protect Charlotte from the violence that other cities have seen.

In south Texas, a hand grenade traced back to a Mexican cartel was
thrown into a bar filled with 20 patrons in January. It did not
detonate. In Phoenix, police and federal agents are dealing with
execution-style murders and a spiraling kidnap rate. Mayor Phil Gordon
told a congressional hearing last month that "people are being
tortured in our very city." Adams, the CMPD captain, likened the
Mexican drug organizations to a Fortune 500 company. They have
managers and distribution supervisors. They have strict rules and keep
detailed budgets, including planning for annual losses. At the time of
his arrest, Hernandez made $2,000 to $7,000 a day delivering heroin,
according to court records.

In one recorded conversation, cited in court documents, a customer
called asking for "Tony," which was Hernandez's code name.

"Can I get $200 worth?" the customer said. "Meet at the Walgreens on
South," Hernandez responded. Hernandez sent his runner "Juan" in a
blue Toyota Camry to deliver 18 balloons of heroin to the user waiting
at the drug store. "It's a business," Adams said. "Some of them are
probably set up better than some legitimate businesses.. That's not
something to be proud of, but to them it's about money. It's all about
the money." Staff researcher Maria David contributed.

Sidebar More Information cartel.ART.04052009.AHD7UP8_InfoBoxAHD7UP8
Statewide, heroin seizures increased 77% last year.

In Charlotte, heroin seizures have risen 233% since 2005. More about
black tar Where it comes from: Black tar heroin starts with opium from
poppy plants grown in western Mexico, in an area stretching from the
state of Chihuahua south to the state of Guerrero. The opium is
chemically converted into black tar. Its trademark color and
consistency - which one officer compared to "a warm tootsie roll" -
result from the crude processing methods. How it's used: Black tar can
be smoked in a glass pipe. But because of its texture, addicts often
use a spoon and a flame to melt black tar in water. Once it's
"cooked," it can be injected.

Effects on the body: Substance-abuse specialists say black tar's
impurities make it more dangerous than other forms of heroin. One
addict said the high from black tar is delayed so users end up taking
more than necessary. Ronnie Bradley, program manager at the McLeod
Addictive Disease Center in Charlotte, said more people in Charlotte
are now overdosing from black tar heroin than other forms of the drug.

Bradley said black tar, like other types of heroin, can impair the
kidneys, liver, lungs and brain, and it slows the central nervous
system. If a user takes too much, his heart will stop.