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The Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking task force said the 10 counties in the San Francisco Bay area continue to be a hub of operations for narcotics traffickers for distribution throughout California and into other states.

As a result of the illegal narcotics-related manufacturing and distribution organizations operating in California, it is estimated that more than $1 billion per year is returned to foreign source countries, the task force said.

Illegal narcotics activity in the area includes primary manufacturing, transshipment, and distribution.

The affluence of the region has also contributed to a surge in the use of narcotics and the emergence of meth as the popular recreational drug of choice in the gay and youth communities, the task force said.

Meth use is also reaching into secondary schools where students as young as 13 are consumers.

The task force attributes the highlevel of criminal activity to a number of economic, demographic, and geographic factors, including the large area population of seven million people, major national and international transportation centers, and racial and ethnic diversity.

Other reasons include:

* Smugglers continue to use the three international airports serving over 58 million passengers annually to move illegal drugs and money.

* Commercial vehicles have become an increasingly popular method of smuggling with the use of the many highway corridors leading into the bay area.

Northern California has increasingly become the target of Mexican polydrug organizations.

The meth-user populations of college students, young professionals, the gay community, and blue-collar workers are increasing.

Hispanics have surpassed the outlaw motorcycle gangs as the primary manufacturing and distribution organizations for methamphetamine.

Narcotic-related arrests account for 60 percent to 85 percent of the total arrests in Northern California.

Gangs are the primary means for distributing illegal narcotics at the street level. Gangs use firearms and violence to protect their territories and supplies. Gang violence is increasing and strongly associated with the methamphetamine trade.

Emergency room visits due to methamphetamine abuse have more than doubled since 1992. The majority of users in this region inject methamphetamine, thereby increasing the risk of AIDS and hepatitis.

With the price of methamphetamine decreasing during the past several years, the user population has increased and drug trafficking organizations are becoming more organized and better equipped as they gain experience and evade arrest.

Cocaine and black tar heroin continue to be smuggled across the Mexican border and shipped to Northern California via Mexican and Colombian organizations in the Los Angeles area.

The San Francisco Bay area, in turn, serves as a trans-shipment point for the Pacific Northwest and Midwest.

“Sinsemilla” marijuana, grown in Northern California, is a high potency form of marijuana that is in demand in all parts of the country. Estimates of the value of one mature plant range as high as $5,000 each.

Most of the $1 billion that drug traffickers will generate in California will return legally to the United States and laundered into legal investments, the task force said.

Despite intensified policing and record seizures along the southern border areas of California, dangerous drugs continue to be available in large quantities in the 10 Northern California HIDTA counties, the task force said.