Commission: More funding needed to fight crime

The New Mexico Organized Crime Commission released its annual report Monday highlighting achievements in its first full year of operations after being reinstated in 2023 following years of inactivity.

Described as “a unique government agency created to fight criminal enterprises by leading multi-agency efforts across multiple jurisdictions,” the commission was established by executive order in 1973 to combat out-of-state crime syndicates but had become dormant by the early 1990s, according to the report.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham revived the commission in 2023 and appointed 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman to lead the group.

The combined efforts of the commission and other agencies have resulted in more than 200 migrants being “rescued” from human trafficking organizations, 10 illegal massage parlors being shut down and the seizure and destruction of 160,000 pounds of illegal cannabis, the report says.

The group also says it has identified and mapped key fentanyl trafficking routes in the past year.

Spoiler: The deadly drug likely enters the state most often through Arizona and Texas, not New Mexico’s southern border, as originally thought.

The commission hasn’t received any funding; however, Bregman has been using money from the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office to fund a small team since the panel was reinstated, said Lujan Grisham’s spokesperson, Michael Coleman. It’s now asking for a legislative appropriation of $4.5 million to cover its operations in fiscal years 2026 and 2027 and is recommending the creation of a “centralized intelligence center” under the auspices of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.

The funding would allow the commission to hire 10 full-time employees — including special agents and intelligence analysts — cover travel costs and purchase vehicles and law enforcement equipment, according to the report.

A unified approach is needed, the report says, to combat “sophisticated crime syndicates” that “strategically use the same resources and infrastructure for multiple illicit activities.”

“Organized crime has deeply infiltrated New Mexico’s society, gaining significant power,” the report says. “However, the past year has revealed that these organizations have become overconfident due to decades of operating with impunity, which is their weakness. By uniting under the Commission’s leadership, there is still an opportunity to eliminate organized crime from New Mexico.”

The report includes information about its investigations into the trafficking of weapons, humans and drugs and recommends tougher penalties for human trafficking, which would increase sentences for some third-degree sex trafficking crimes to nine years in prison from three.

Human trafficking

Hundreds of migrants die along the state’s southern border each year and thousands more are exploited through labor and sex trafficking, the group found.

“Cartels treat migrants more like cattle than people,” the report says, adding human trafficking has become a form of “modern-day slavery” in which human smuggling operations transport migrants across the border to stash houses in New Mexico then send them to other parts of the country, “wherever they believe they can exploit migrants the most.”

Some intelligence sources indicate Albuquerque has more stash houses than any other city in the U.S., according to the report.

Illicit massage parlors in Bernalillo County often use women trafficked from China via California, the report says. Many of the women have been “victimized and conditioned to work in these environments ... and therefore do not see themselves as victims of sex trafficking,” making them unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement.

Gun smuggling

Social media applications and 3-D printers capable of producing small parts that can convert semiautomatic pistols into fully automatic machine guns has made firearms more accessible than ever “to felons and teens alike,” the report says, and the apps support a thriving black market for drugs, child pornography and prostitution.

“This black market is currently being utilized by gangs in New Mexico. The landscape of gangs in New Mexico has changed significantly in the last decade. No longer bound by geographic restraints and claiming territory, gangs now form online, using common interests to form groups. This makes the organizations more difficult to define and identify.”

Some traditional gangs in New Mexico have persevered and continue to be significant drivers of crime, the report says.

The commission has been working closely with the FBI on operations against Brewtown Locos and Los Padillas — “both traditional gangs that are responsible for a significant amount of crime in New Mexico over the years,” according to the report.

Drugs shipments

Fentanyl continues to be one of the most deadly narcotics in New Mexico, the report says, adding the legalization of cannabis has made the state a haven for growers and unlicensed sellers have been springing up.

While it was previously thought that fentanyl was entering the country through the southern border, the report says, the commission has identified an “increasingly more likely scenario” in which drug smugglers are entering New Mexico through neighboring states.

By comparing the locations of where “major loads” — 1,000 pills or more — were being seized with information about the cost of pills in varying locations, the commission was able to create a map identifying the most likely routes for moving the drug through the state and into the rest of the country.

“Areas such as Las Cruces and Lordsburg have the highest prices per pill,” according to the report, indicating there is less supply there.

“However Grants, Albuquerque, Española and Artesia have the lowest prices,” and the highest concentration of major loads seized.

The data seems to indicate drug shipments originate in the Mexican cities of Nogales and Ojinaga.

“We would like to analyze this data further, in order to establish specific mile markers and temporal patterns that would allow law enforcement to have targeted patrols,” the report says.

It recommends the state establish a unified approach to combat organized crime.

“We are not up against groups of street gangs fighting for control of the local block,” the report says, describing the organizations as “massive, dangerous, criminal corporations.”

“While we have found that law enforcement agencies and prosecuting offices are working hard to keep New Mexico safe, we continue to be disjointed in our endeavors,” the report says. “By contrast, the cartels ... are making significant profits by taking advantage of our current lack of intelligence.

“These organizations are sophisticated and are currently operating at professional levels with robust technology that is still confounding our law enforcement agencies. The only way to thwart their incursions into the state is by working together and combining our efforts under a singular umbrella.”