States , the Drug Enforcement Administration says . This fiscal year , Atlanta continues to outpace all other U.S. regions in such seizures , with $ 30 million confiscated so far . Next are Los Angeles , California , with about $ 19 million , and Chicago , Illinois , with $ 18 million . `` There is definitely a center of this type of drug activity here , and we are working to make sure the violence does not spill out to the general public , '' Atlanta U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said . Atlanta has become a stopping point for truckloads of Mexican cocaine , heroin , marijuana and methamphetamine , agents say . The drugs are held in stash houses before being distributed up the East Coast . `` The money comes down here also to money managers in Atlanta , who get the books in order before it is sent out , '' said Rodney Benson , Atlanta 's chief of the DEA . Agents attribute the growth in drug trafficking to Atlanta 's location , proximity to other major cities and access to major highways . Authorities also point to the growth of the Hispanic
ATLANTA , Georgia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Oscar Reynoso owed his bosses $ 300,000 , and he was running out of time . One anti-drug operation in Atlanta netted $ 10.6 million , 108 kilos of cocaine , 17 pounds of meth and 32 weapons . Gunmen snatched Reynoso and locked him in the basement of a home to try to settle the drug debt . He was chained to a wall of the basement by his hands and ankles , gagged and beaten . His captors , members of a powerful Mexican drug cartel , held Reynoso for ransom , chained in the sweltering , dirty basement for six days without food . Reynoso 's ordeal could 've been a scene from the drug war in Mexico . But it played out recently in suburban Atlanta , Georgia . U.S. federal agents are fighting to keep that kind of violence from gripping Atlanta , as the city known for Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines has become a major distribution hub for Mexican drug cartels . In fiscal year 2008 , authorities confiscated about $ 70 million in drug-related cash in Atlanta , more than anywhere else in the United