Drugs are flooding back into New Orleans as the city tries to recover from Hurricane Katrina, in part because local dealers made new connections with overseas suppliers while they were relocated to Houston, the New York Times reported Aug. 5.

Anti-drug agents are seeing larger drug shipments into the city than ever before; a recent bust resulted in the seizure of 50 kilos of cocaine, for example. Drug trade has become more regionalized, officials say, requiring police to change tactics.

Prior to Katrina, "Whenever we'd seize drugs destined for the greater New Orleans area, it was mostly 5 and 10 kilograms," said William J.  Renton Jr., head of the DEA's New Orleans office. Now, however, "even guys who may not have been the biggest dope peddlers in the city went to Houston and met people who were involved in supplying, and new or deeper relationships developed."

Increased drug-related violence has caused the murder rate in New Orleans to rise as dealers and gangs fight over turf. The reorganization of the illicit-drug industry after Katrina also has hurt Houston, with storm evacuees implicated in 44 killings, many drug related, as well as numerous other drug crimes.

Tougher law enforcement in Houston, however, has led many dealers to return to New Orleans, infamous for its weak court system. Law-enforcement officers in the region are focusing on intercepting drug shipments from Houston to New Orleans, typically moved by pickup trucks on Interstate 10 and escorted by cars full of armed men.

Police also speculate that dealing has increased because New Orleans dealers are trying to work off debt owed to their suppliers when the storm ruined their stocks.